Payette Credit: www.spacefacts.de |
Status: Inactive; Active 1992-2013. Born: 1963-10-20. Spaceflights: 2 . Total time in space: 25.50 days. Birth Place: Montreal, Quebec.
Educated McGill; Toronto.
Official NASA Biography as of June 2016:Julie Payette
Astronaut, Canadian Space Agency
PERSONAL DATA: Born October 20, 1963, in Montréal, Quebec, Ms. Payette enjoys running, skiing, racquet sports and scuba diving. She has a commercial pilot license with float rating. Ms. Payette is fluent in French and English and can converse in Spanish, Italian, Russian and German. She plays the piano and has sung with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Piacere Vocale in Basel, Switzerland, and the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra in Toronto.
EDUCATION: Attended primary and secondary school in Montréal, Quebec. International Baccalaureate from the United World College of the Atlantic in Wales, UK (1982). Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, cum laude, from McGill University, Montréal (1986). Master of Applied Science - Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto (1990).
ORGANIZATIONS: Member of l'Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec and the International Academy of Astronautics. Member of the Board of Canada's "Own The Podium" Olympic High Performance Program. Director and Trustee of Lester B. Pearson UWV College in Victoria, BC, and member of the Board of Directors of Le Collége des Administrateurs of Laval University in Quebec City. Former Governor-in-Council for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Member of Les Amies d'affaires du Ritz.
SPECIAL HONORS: Received one of six Canadian scholarships to attend the Atlantic College in Wales, UK (1980). Greville-Smith Scholarship, the highest undergraduate award at McGill University (1982 to 1986). McGill University Faculty Scholar (1983 to 1986). NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship (1988 to 1990). Massey College Fellowship (1988 to 1990). Canadian Council of Professional Engineers; distinction for exceptional achievement by a young engineer (1994). NASA Space Flight Medal (1999). Chevalier de l'Ordre de la Pléiade de la francophonie (2001). Knight of l'Ordre National du Québec (2002). NASA Space Flight Medal (2009). University of Ottawa Distinguished Canadian Leadership Award (2009). Carried the Olympic flag in the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, British Columbia. Engineers Canada Gold Medal, the highest recognition of the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers (2010). Inducted in the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame (2010). NASA Exceptional Service Medal (2010). Officer of the Order of Canada (2010).
HONORARY DEGREES: Queen's University (1999); University of Ottawa (1999); Simon Fraser University (2000); Université Laval (2000); University of Regina (2001); Royal Roads University (2001); University of Toronto (2001); University of Victoria (2002); Nipissing University (2002); McGill University (2003); Mount Saint Vincent University (2004); McMaster University (2004); University of Lethbridge (2005); Mount Allison University (2005); University of Alberta (2006); York University (2010); University of Waterloo (2010); Concordia University (2010); University of British Columbia (2010); Niagara University USA (2011); Ryerson University (2011); Vancouver Island University (2012); Carleton University (2012).
EXPERIENCE: Before joining the space program, Ms. Payette conducted research in computer systems, natural language processing and automatic speech recognition. She worked as a system engineer with IBM Canada (1986 to 1988); research assistant at the University of Toronto (1988 to1990); visiting scientist at the IBM Research Laboratory in Zurich, Switzerland (1991), and research engineer with BNR/Nortel in Montréal (1992).
In June 1992, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) selected Ms. Payette from 5,330 applicants to become one of four astronauts. After her basic training in Canada, she worked as a technical advisor for the Mobile Servicing System (MSS), an advanced robotics system contributed by Canada to the International Space Station.
In preparation for a space mission assignment, Ms. Payette obtained her commercial pilot license, studied Russian and logged 120 hours as a research operator onboard reduced gravity aircraft. In April 1996, Ms. Payette was certified as a one-atmosphere, deep-sea diving suit operator. Ms. Payette obtained her military pilot captaincy on the Tutor CT-114 "Snowbird" jet at the Canadian Air Force Base in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, in February 1996. She obtained her military instrument rating in 1997. She has logged more than 1,300 hours of flight time.
Ms. Payette was Chief Astronaut for the Canadian Space Agency (2000-2007).
In January 2011, Ms. Payette undertook a research fellowship as a Public Policy Scholar at the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, D.C. In October 2011, Ms. Payette accepted an appointment as Scientific Delegate to the United States for the Quebec Government. She is based in Washington, D.C., and remains a member of the Canadian astronaut corps.
NASA EXPERIENCE: Ms. Payette reported to NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, in August 1996. She completed initial astronaut training in April 1998 and was assigned to work on technical issues in robotics for the Astronaut Office. A veteran of two spaceflights, STS-96 (1999) and STS-127 (2009), she has logged more than 611 hours in space.
From September 1999 to December 2002, Ms Payette was assigned to represent the astronaut corps at the European and Russian space agencies, where she supervised procedure development, equipment verification and space hardware processing for the International Space Station Program.
Ms. Payette also served as a Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) at Mission Control Center in Houston and was lead CAPCOM for space shuttle mission STS-121. The CAPCOM is responsible for all communications between ground controllers and the astronauts in flight.
SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: Ms. Payette flew on space shuttle Discovery from May 27 to June 6, 1999, as a crew member of STS-96. During the mission, the crew members performed the first manual docking of the shuttle to the International Space Station and delivered four tons of supplies to the station. Ms. Payette served as a Mission Specialist, was responsible for the station systems, supervised the spacewalk and operated the Canadarm robotic arm. The STS-96 mission was accomplished in 153 orbits of the Earth, traveling more than six million kilometers in nine days, 19 hours and 13 minutes. Ms. Payette was the first Canadian to participate in an ISS assembly mission and to board the station.
From July 15 to July 31, 2009, Ms. Payette served as the Flight Engineer on the crew of STS-127 aboard space shuttle Endeavour on the 29th shuttle mission to the International Space Station. During this mission, also known as station assembly mission 2J/A, the crew completed the construction of the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module, installed scientific experiments on its exposed facility and delivered critical spare parts and replacement batteries to the orbital complex. Robotics technology was used almost every day on this assembly mission, and Ms. Payette operated all three robotic arms: the shuttle's Canadarm, the station's Canadarm2 and a special-purpose Japanese arm on Kibo. While the shuttle was docked to the ISS, the mission featured a record 13 astronauts from 5 different nationalities together onboard a single joint spacecraft. It also highlighted the first time that two Canadians were in space at the same time. The 16-day mission included five spacewalks and traveled 10.5 million kilometers in 248 orbits around the Earth.
JUNE 2012
This is the only version available from NASA. Updates must be sought from the above named individual.
Ms. Payette was selected as an astronaut by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) in June 1992 and underwent training in Canada. After basic training, she worked as a technical advisor for the MSS (Mobile Servicing System), the Canadian contribution to the International Space Station. In 1993, Ms. Payette established the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Group at the Canadian Astronaut Program. In addition, she served on the NATO International Research Study Group (RSG-10) on speech processing.
In preparation for a space assignment, Ms. Payette studied Russian and contributed to microgravity science experiments aboard various parabolic aircraft (KC-135, T-33, Falcon-20, DC-9) where she logged over 120 hours of reduced gravity flight time, both as experiment operator and test subject. In the fall of 1995, Ms. Payette undertook military jet training at the Canadian Air Force Base in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, where she obtained her captaincy and logged 95 hours on the Tutor CT-114 jet aircraft. In April 1996, Ms. Payette completed a deep-sea diving suit training program in Vancouver BC and was certified as a one-atmosphere diving suit operator (NEWTSUIT Level 2 Pilot).
Discovery and its multi-national crew of seven astronauts blasted off this morning from the Kennedy Space Center, lighting up the early morning skies as they sped to orbit on the first shuttle mission of the year for the first shuttle docking to the International Space Station. Additional Details: here....
The crew of STS-96 was awakened just before 7 p.m. by the Beach Boys' version of "California Dreamin," played for Mission Specialist Tammy Jernigan. Once awake, Discovery's seven-member crew began preparing for its first full day on orbit to ready the vehicle for tomorrow night's docking with the International Space Station and a spacewalk the night after. Additional Details: here....
Discovery docked at the PMA-2 end of the International Space Station PMA-2/Unity/PMA-1/Zarya stack. The crew transferred equipment from the Spacehab Logistics Double Module in the payload bay to the interior of the station. Tammy Jernigan and Dan Barry made a space walk to transfer equipment from the payload bay to the exterior of the station. The ODS/EAL docking/airlock truss carried two TSA (Tool Stowage Assembly) packets with space walk tools. The Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC), built by Energia and DASA-Bremen, carried parts of the Strela crane and the US OTD crane as well as the SHOSS box which contains three bags of tools and equipment to be stored on ISS's exterior.
The STS-96 payload bay manifest:
On May 30 at 02:56 GMT Tammy Jernigan and Dan Barry entered the payload bay of Discovery from the tunnel adapter hatch, and made a 7 hr 55 min space walk, transferring equipment to the exterior of the station.
On May 31 at 01:15 GMT the hatch to Unity was opened and the crew began several days of cargo transfers to the station. Battery units and communications equipment were replaced and sound insulation was added to Zarya. Discovery undocked from ISS at 22:39 GMT on June 3 into a 385 x 399 km x 51.6 degree orbit, leaving the station without a crew aboard. On June 5 the Starshine satellite was ejected from the payload bay. The payload bay doors were closed at around 02:15 GMT on June 6 and the deorbit burn was at 04:54 GMT. Discovery landed on runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center at 06:02 GMT.
With the Shuttle trailing the station by less than 500 nautical miles and moving closer every orbit, Commander Kent Rominger twice fired Discovery's steering jets to fine tune the Shuttle's approach to the new station. The engine firings were the first in a series that will culminate in a docking with the station planned for 11:24 p.m. Central time today. Down on Discovery's middeck, Flight Engineer Ellen Ochoa and Canadian astronaut Julie Payette opened the tunnel and hatches leading to the Spacehab module in the payload bay. Spacehab is loaded with equipment, clothes and food to be stored aboard the new orbital outpost. Later, Payette and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev temporarily stowed some equipment in the module to free up room in Discovery's cabin. Additional Details: here....
At wake-up, the Shuttle trailed the station by about 120 nautical miles and was closing in by about 41 nautical miles with each orbit of Earth. The final phase of rendezvous will begin when Discovery reaches a point about eight nautical miles directly behind the station and fires its engines in a terminal phase initiation burn at 8:35 p.m. Central. The TI burn, as it is called, will put the Shuttle on a course directly toward the station during the next orbit of Earth. Additional Details: here....
Having completed the first space shuttle docking with the International Space Station late last night, Discovery's astronauts will go to sleep at 8:50 a.m. Central time to rest up for a space walk late tonight to install a pair of cranes and other gear to the exterior of the orbital complex. Additional Details: here....
At 4:50 this afternoon, the crew of Discovery awoke to the sound of the Space Center Intermediate Band playing familiar themes from "Star Wars." The music and performers were of particular interest to Mission Specialist Dan Barry because his daughter, Jenny, plays flute in that band. Barry and fellow Mission Specialist Tammy Jernigan are STS-96's own "skywalkers" tonight as they prepare to work outside Discovery during an Extravehicular Activity scheduled to begin shortly after 10 this evening. Additional Details: here....
Discovery's crew headed for its sleep period this morning, reporting significant progress in the transfer of equipment and supplies to the International Space Station after finishing up the planned refurbishment of a battery system in one of the station's modules. Additional Details: here....
Discovery's astronauts will finish their work inside the International Space Station tonight and are scheduled to have all the hatches closed by about 4 a.m. Thursday. Shortly thereafter, the shuttle's small thrusters will be fired to raise the entire complex's orbit in preparation for the undocking and departure set for late tomorrow afternoon. Additional Details: here....
Crew: Polansky, Hurley, Cassidy, Marshburn, Wolf, Payette. Deliver to the ISS and install the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility (JEM EF); Kibo Japanese Experiment Logistics Module - Exposed Section (ELM-ES); and Spacelab Pallet - Deployable 2 (SLP-D2).