Kjell Lindgren | |
|---|---|
| 林其兒 | |
.jpg) Official portrait, 2014 | |
| Born | Kjell Norwood Lindgren (1973-01-23)January 23, 1973 (age 53) Taipei, Taiwan |
| Education | United States Air Force Academy (BS) Colorado State University (MS) University of Colorado School of Medicine (MD) University of Minnesota (MS) University of Texas, Galveston (MPH) |
| Space career | |
| NASA astronaut | |
Time in space | 312d 5h 11m |
| Selection | NASA Group 20 (2009) |
TotalEVAs | 2 |
Total EVA time | 15h 4m |
| Missions | Soyuz TMA-17M (Expedition 44/45) SpaceX Crew-4 (Expedition 67/68) |
Mission insignia |     |
Kjell Norwood Lindgren (Chinese: 林其兒;pinyin:Lín Qí'ér; born January 23, 1973) is an Americanastronaut who was selected in June 2009 as a member of theNASA Astronaut Group 20.[1] He launched to theInternational Space Station (ISS) as part ofExpedition 44/45 on July 22, 2015.[2][3]
Lindgren was born inTaipei, Taiwan,[4] in 1973 to a Taiwanese mother[5][6] and American father in the US Air Force;[7] his Chinese name is Lin Qi'er (Chinese:林其兒;pinyin:Lín Qí'ér).[5] His family later moved to the Midwestern United States, but he spent most of his childhood in England. He attendedLakenheath American High School for a year before moving back to the United States, where he graduated fromJames W. Robinson Secondary School inFairfax, Virginia in 1991.
After entering theUnited States Air Force Academy, he joined the Air Force Parachuting Team. In 1995, he received aBachelor of Science (BS) degree in biology with a minor inMandarin Chinese from the Air Force Academy. In 1996, he received aMaster of Science (MS) degree in cardiovascular physiology fromColorado State University (CSU), in part for his work completing cardiovascular countermeasure research at NASA's Space Physiology Lab. He subsequently obtained aDoctorate of Medicine (MD) from theUniversity of Colorado School of Medicine in 2002, and went on to complete a three-year residency in emergency medicine atHennepin County Medical Center inMinneapolis. In 2006, he completed a post-doctoral fellowship and aMaster of Health Informatics (MHI) at theUniversity of Minnesota. He also completed aMaster of Public Health (MPH) at theUniversity of Texas Medical Branch in 2007 and a residency inaerospace medicine in 2008.[8]
He began working forNASA at theJohnson Space Center in 2007. He went on to support ISS training operation atStar City, Russia and became the deputy crew surgeon forSTS-130 andExpedition 24.
In June 2009, he was one of nine astronaut candidates selected by NASA out of 3500 applications and began training as part ofNASA Astronaut Group 20. The nine Americans, as well as twoCanadian Space Agency candidates and threeJAXA candidates, started training at theJohnson Space Center in August 2009.[9] The 14 candidates carried trained in various different fields includingT-38 flight training,Extravehicular activity training, survival,International Space Station operations and other various skills. The group completed their training and Lindgren and his 13 classmates became eligible for future flight assignments on November 4, 2011.
In between finishing training, he worked in theSpacecraft Communicator andExtravehicular Activity branches of NASA, and he was the Spacecraft Communicator lead forExpedition 30.
From June 18, 2017, to June 27, 2017, Lindgren was commander of theNEEMO 22 mission to theAquarius Reef Base, located 19 meters underwater off the coast ofFlorida. The NEEMO 22 mission focused on both exploration spacewalks and objectives related to the International Space Station and deep space missions. As an analogue for future planetary science concepts and strategies, the mission's crew also performed marine science under the guidance of Florida International University's marine science department. Objectives for the crew also included testing spaceflight countermeasure equipment, technology for precisely tracking equipment in habitat and studies of body composition and sleep. The crew also assessed hardware sponsored by ESA that will help crew members evacuate someone who has been injured on a future lunar spacewalk.
In 2013, he began training at theGagarin Space Center and was assigned as backup flight engineer forExpedition 42/43 which launched onSoyuz TMA-15M.[10] He was later assigned toExpedition 44/45 as a flight engineer. On July 22, 2015, Lindgren launched on his first mission to the ISS alongside Russian cosmonautOleg Kononenko andJapanese astronautKimiya Yui onboardSoyuz TMA-17M.[8] Six hours later the trio docked to the ISS, officially joining Expedition 44 alongsideSoyuz TMA-16M crewmembersGennady Padalka andMikhail Kornienko ofRoscosmos andScott Kelly of NASA. In November 2015, while on the ISS, Kjell played a set ofbagpipes manufactured byMcCallum Bagpipes Ltd as a memorial toVictor Hurst, who died in October of that year. McCallum Bagpipes was chosen to manufacture the bagpipes because they make them in plastic, which is easily sanitized and transported, ideal for space exploration. This is thought to be the first time the Great Highland bagpipes have been played in space.[11]
Towards the end of Expedition 44,Soyuz TMA-18M docked with the ISS carrying Russian cosmonautSergey Volkov,ESA astronautAndreas Mogensen andKazCosmos cosmonautAidyn Aimbetov. This was unusual as it occurred before the departure ofSoyuz TMA-16M, meaning there was a small period where nine people were on board the ISS. This was done in order to allow Kelly and Kornienko to remain on board the ISS for afull year, Soyuz TMA-16M landed with Paldlka, Mogensen and Aimbetov nine days after the launch of Soyuz TMA-18M, returning the ISS to normal six crew operations.[12][13]
On October 28, 2015, Lindgren ventured outside of the ISS with Scott Kelly for his firstspacewalk, the two spacewalkers completed several tasks including changing an insulating unit on one of the station's Main Bus Switching Units (MBSU), carried out some maintenance on one ofCanadarm-2's Latching End Effector's and prepared both of the station's "open"Pressurized Mating Adapters ahead of the installation of twoInternational Docking Adapters.[14] On November 6, 2015, Lindgren ventured outside the station with Kelly again for his second spacewalk. Over the course of the 7 hour and 48-minute spacewalk, the two astronauts worked to restore a portion of the ISS's cooling system to its primary configuration, returning ammonia coolant levels to normal in the primary and backup radiator arrays.[15]
On December 11, 2015, he returned to Earth alongside Kononenko and Yui following 141 days in space, the Soyuz touched down on theKazakh Steppe at night, which is rare for the Soyuz. Following landing, Lindgren and Yui returned to theJohnson Space Center in Houston to rendezvous with their families.[16][17]
Lindgren served as the only member of the backup crew for theSpaceX'sCrew Dragon Demo-2 mission, the first test flight of SpaceX'sCrew Dragon spacecraft. He trained as backup for both crew members, NASA astronautsDouglas Hurley andRobert Behnken, and was ready to take either the Spacecraft Commander or Joint Operations Commander seat if need be.[18] He was also the commander of the backup crew forSpaceX Crew-1, the first operational flight of Crew Dragon spacecraft and first operational flight of theCommercial Crew Program.[19] On March 19, 2019, Lindgren started five weeks of training on the ISSRussian Orbital Segment for the flight at theGagarin Cosmonaut Training Center inStar City, Russia alongside NASA astronautsMichael Hopkins andVictor Glover.[20]
In February 2021, he was assigned as commander ofSpaceX Crew-4, which was his second long-duration mission to the ISS. He flew alongside NASA astronautBob Hines, who was assigned as pilot.[21] They were joined by mission specialistsSamantha Cristoforetti ofESA andJessica Watkins of NASA.[22][23] Crew-4 launched on April 27, 2022 and docked later that day.[24][25] It splashed down off the coast of Florida with Lindgren on board on October 14, 2022 after 170 days in orbit.[26]
Lindgren is married to Kristiana Lindgren and has three children. He has said that he enjoys running, SCUBA diving, reading, movies, photography, amateur astronomy, working with computers, and church activities.[8][27]
Lindgren is also ascience fiction fan,[28] and in 2015 was a Guest of Honor at the73rd World Science Fiction Convention while aboard the ISS.[29] He participated in theHugo Award ceremony as a guest presenter viavideoconferencing, announcingCixin Liu's win of the 2015Hugo Award for Best Novel.[30] He was also a special guest atWorldcon in Helsinki 2017. In 2017, he also served as the Toastmaster for theNebula Awards inPittsburgh.[31]
Lindgren was aBoy Scout and attained the rank ofEagle Scout. During the23rd World Scout Jamboree in Japan in 2015, Lindgren talked to a small group of Scouts via radio from theInternational Space Station. The Scouts asked him various questions about daily life at the Space Station and space.[32][33]
Lindgren is a General class Ham Radio operator call sign KO5MOS.[34]
In October 2022 during his stay at theISS Lindgren talked live and direct to students from the school at theArgentine baseEsperanza inAntarcticaNASA video[35]
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
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