Biographies of International Astronauts

Thirsk

Robert Brent

Canada

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Personal data

Birthdate:  17.08.1953
Birthplace:  New Westminister / British Columbia
Marital status:  married
Children:  three
Selection date:  05.12.1983
Selection group:  CSA-1
Position:  MSP
Status:  Ret. 13.08.2012

Spaceflights

No. Mission Position Time Duration
1  STS-78 Columbia  MS  20.06. - 07.07.1996 16d 21h 47m 
2  Soyuz TMA-15 / ISS-20 / ISS-21  Flight Engineer  27.05. - 01.12.2009 187d 20h 41m 
3        
4        
5        
6        
7        
Total  204d 18h 28m 
     

Backup assignments

No. Mission Position
1  STS-41G  PS
2  Soyuz TMA-6  Flight Engineer

Additional information

Bachelor of science in mechanical eingineering from the University of Calgary, 1976; master of science in mechanical engineering from MIT, 1978; doctorate of medicine from McGill University, 1982; master of business administration from MIT Sloan School of Management, 1998; was selected as backup for STS-41G; although not officially a member of the 1998 class (NASA-17), he participated in mission specialist training in the same period as his Canadian colleque Bjarni Tryggvason; hobbies: Squash, playing the piano, spending time with his family, flying; trained at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre near Moscow and became certified as a Flight Engineer for the Soyuz spacecraft (2004); served as backup Flight Engineer to European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Roberto Vittori for the Soyuz TMA-6 taxi mission to the ISS (April 2005); returned to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and began ISS Expedition crew training.

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Last update on August 25, 2018.

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