Accomplished Chinese Americans

American Astronaut of Chinese descent

Leory Chiao (Ph.D.)

Date of Birth:		August 28, 1960

Place of Birth:		Milwaukee, WI, Leroy Chiao considers Danville, CA his  

home town.  His parents, Mr/Mrs. Tsu Tao Chiao, reside in Fairfield, CA.

U.S. Citizen:		By birth

Education:	Graduate of Monte Vista High School, Danville, CA (1978) B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of California at Berkeley (1983), M.S. (1985) and Ph.D. (1987) in Chemical Engineering,  University of California at Santa Barbara,							

	Dr. Chiao graduated in 1987 from the University of California at Santa  
Barbara, and joined the Hexcel Corporation in Dublin, California.  He  
worked for Hexcel until 1989, during which time he was involved in  
process, manufacturing, and engineering research on advance aerospace  
materials; worked on a joint NASA-JPL/Hexcel project to develop a  
practical, optically correct, precision segment reflector, made  
entirely of advanced polymer composite materials, for future space  
telescopes; as well as working on cure modeling and finite element  
analysis.  In January of 1989 Dr. Chiao joined the Lawrence Livermore  
National Laboratory in Livermore, California, where he was involved in  
processing research for fabrication of filament-wound and thick section  
composites.  Dr. Chiao also developed and demonstrated a mechanistic  
cure model for graphite fiber/epoxy composite material.  An  
instrument-rated pilot, Dr. Chiao has logged over 1500 flight hours in  
a variety of aircraft.

	Selected by NASA in January 1990, Dr. Chaio became an astronaut in  
July 1991.  He is qualified for flight assignment as a mission  
specialist.  His technical assignments to date include: Space Shuttle  
flight software verification in the Shuttle Avionics Integration  
Laboratory (SAIL); crew equipment, Spacelab, Spacelab and payloads  
issues for the Astronaut Office Mission Development Branch; Training  
and Flight Data File issues; EVA issues for the EVA Branch.  A veteran  
of two space flights, he flew as a mission specialist on STS-65 in 1994  
and STS-72 in 1996.  Dr. Chiao has logged 567 hours, 55 minutes,41  
seconds in space, including two space walks totaling just over 13  
hours.  Dr. Chaio is assigned as a mission specialist STS-92, the  
second Space Shuttle mission to assemble the International Space  
Station.  Launch is scheduled for June 1999.

	SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: STS-65 (July 8-23,1994) launched from and  
returned to land at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, setting a new  
flight duration record for the Space Shuttle program at that time.  The  
STS-65 mission flew the second International Microgravity Laboratory  
(IML-2).  During the 15-day flight the seven-member crew aboard  
Columbia conducted more than 80 experiments focusing on materials and  
life sciences research in microgravity.  The mission was accomplished  
in 236 orbits of the Earth, traveling 6.1 million miles in 353 hours  
and 55 minutes.
	
	STS-72 (January 11-20,1996) was a 9-day mission during which the crew  
aboard Endeavor retrieved the Space Flyer Unit (launched from Japan  
10-months earlier), and deployed and retrieved the OAST-Flyer.  Dr.  
Chaio performed two spacewalks designed to demonstrated tools and  
hardware, and evaluating techniques to be used in the assembly of the  
International Space Station.  In completing this mission, Dr. Chaio  
logged a total of 214 hours and 41 seconds in space, including just  
over 13 EVA hours, and traveled 3.7 million miles in 142 orbits of the  
Earth.  

	STS-65-08 July 1994 Assignments;   Prime Crew, Flight Time: 14, 
75 days. Carried IML-2; micorgravity, biology experiments; Payloads :  
International Microgravity Laboratory (IML) 2, Orbital 	Acceleration  
Research Experiment (OARE), Commercial Protein Crystal Growth (CPCG),  
Air Force Maui Optical Site 	(AMOS), Military Applications of Ship  
Tracks (MAST), Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX).

	STS-72-11 January 1996 Assignments : Prime Crew.  Flight Time :  
8.92 days. Summary : Deployed and retrieved OAST Flyer; retrieved SFU Space Flyer  
Unit.  Besides the two satellite retrievals, the 	mission included two  
spacewalks.

	EVA STS-72-1-15 January 1996 Assignments: EVA Crew, EVA Duration :  
6.15 hours.  Summary: Tested tools and techniques for extravehicular  
activity. 

	EVA STS-72-2-17 January 1996 Assignments: EVA Crew, EVA Duration:  
6.88 hours.  Summary:   Tested tools and techniques for extravehicular  
activity.