Michael López-Alegría | |
|---|---|
 Lopez in March 2000 | |
| Born | Miguel Eladio López Alegría (1958-05-30)May 30, 1958 (age 67) |
| Education | United States Naval Academy (BS) Naval Postgraduate School (MS) |
| Space career | |
| NASA astronaut | |
| Rank | Captain,USN |
Time in space | 296 days, 16 hours and 15 minutes |
| Selection | NASA Group 14 (1992) |
TotalEVAs | 10 |
Total EVA time | 67h 41m |
| Missions | |
Mission insignia |     |
| Retirement | March 12, 2012[1] |
Michael López-Alegría (bornMiguel Eladio López Alegría on May 30, 1958) is anastronaut,test pilot andcommercial astronaut with dual nationality, American and Spanish;[2] a veteran of threeSpace Shuttle missions and oneInternational Space Station mission. He is known for having performed tenspacewalks so far in his career, presently holding thesecond longest all-time EVA duration record (first among NASA astronauts) and having the fifth-longestspaceflight of any American at the length of 215 days; this time was spent on board the ISS from September 18, 2006, to April 21, 2007. López-Alegría commandedAxiom-1, the first all-private team ofcommercial astronaut mission to the International Space Station, which launched on April 8, 2022, and spent just over 17 days in Earth's orbit.[3]
Son of a Spanish father and an American mother, López-Alegría was born inMadrid,Spain and raised inMission Viejo, California. After graduating fromMission Viejo High School,[4] López-Alegría joined theUnited States Navy, where he earned aBachelor of Science degree insystems engineering in 1980 from theU.S. Naval Academy, and aMaster of Science degree inAeronautical Engineering in 1988 from the U.S.Naval Postgraduate School. Designated aNaval Aviator in 1981, his aviation experience in the Navy was as an instructor pilot in Training Squadron 2 (VT-2) at Naval Air Station Whiting Field near Pensacola, Florida, at Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron 2 (VQ-2) inRota, Spain, and the Naval Air Test Center atNAS Patuxent River,Maryland. He was the firstEP-3E pilot to be selected for U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. He is a graduate ofHarvard Kennedy School's Program for Senior Executives in National and International Security. He is fluent in English, Spanish, French, and Russian.
His son Nicolas starred alongside López-Alegría in 2006 inMira La Luna (directed by Eduard Bosch). A second documentary, directed by Manuel Huerga,Son And Moon, was released in Spanish theaters in 2009 featuring astronautsMikhail Tyurin,Sunita Williams, and him.
López-Alegría's first space mission wasSTS-73 in 1995; for several years afterwards he ledNASA'sInternational Space Station (ISS) Crew Operations office before returning to space aboardSTS-92 in 2000 andSTS-113 in 2002. During flight STS-92, he tested theSAFERjet backpack with fellow astronautJeff Wisoff, flying up to 50 feet from the spacecraft.[5]
López-Alegría served as anaquanaut on the firstNEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) crew aboard theAquariusunderwater laboratory in October 2001.[6]
On September 20, 2006, López-Alegría docked with the ISS as commander ofExpedition 14, having taken off fromBaikonur,Kazakhstan on September 18, onboardSoyuz TMA-9. OnExpedition 14, he performed five spacewalks. On April 21, 2007, he undocked from the ISS and returned to Earth.
López-Alegría holds the all-time American record for number ofEVAs (10) and total EVA duration (67 hours and 40 minutes). The previous record holder,Jerry L. Ross, had a total of 9 EVAs with a duration of 58 hours and 18 minutes. López-Alegría is the second most experienced spacewalker overall, behind Russia'sAnatoly Solovyev. On April 2, 2007, López-Alegría set the record for the longest space mission of any American astronaut. When he landed on April 21, his time in space on a single mission was 215 days[7] (the longest space mission on record is that ofValeriy Polyakov, who spent 438 days aboard the Russian space stationMir in 1994 and 1995).
At the end of his ISS mission, he commanded the longest flight by a Soyuz spacecraft, makingExpedition 14 the longest expedition thus far. López-Alegría broke the record for longest spaceflight by an American astronaut.[8]
López-Alegría retired from NASA on March 12, 2012[9] and served as the President of theCommercial Spaceflight Federation through the end of 2014.López-Alegría is an independent consultant to traditional and commercial space companies, serves on several advisory boards and committees to public and private organizations, and is engaged in public speaking domestically and internationally. He is based in Washington, DC.
In 2017, López-Alegría joinedAxiom Space as director of Business Development.[10] He flew in space again in 2022 as commander ofAxiom Mission 1, the first Axiom SpaceCrew Dragon mission to theInternational Space Station.[11][12]
López-Alegría was the commander ofAxiom Mission 3, which launched on 18 January 2024.[13]
  | National Defense Service Medal with oneaward star |
  | NASA Space Flight Medal with threeoak leaf clusters |
_ribbon.svg) | Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" |
This article incorporatespublic domain material from websites or documents of theNational Aeronautics and Space Administration.
| Preceded by | ISS Expedition Commander July 6, 2006 to April 21, 2007 | Succeeded by |
NASA Astronaut Group 13 ← NASA Astronaut Group 14 →NASA Astronaut Group 15 | |||||||
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