Pedro Duque

Early life and education

Born in Madrid in 1963. The son of an agricultural engineer who worked as an air traffic controller and a housewife from Badajoz. In 1986 Duque earned a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. In 1986 he worked for GMV and for the European Space Agency (ESA) for six years before being selected as an astronaut candidate in 1992.

Astronaut

Duque underwent training in both Russia and the United States. His first spaceflight was as a mission specialist aboard space shuttle mission STS-95, during which Duque supervised ESA experimental modules. In October 2003, Duque visited the International Space Station on board of a Soyuz TMA Ship for several days during a crew changeover. The scientific program of this visit was called by ESA/Spain Misión Cervantes.

University and Business

In 2003 he started working at UPM School of Aeronautical Engineers as head of operations of the Spanish USOC, also lecturing students on space science and operations.^[1]

In 2006 Duque was named managing director of Deimos Imaging, a private company, that in 2009 put in orbit the first Spanish earth observation satellite (Deimos 1) with uses in agriculture, forestry wildfire detection and control. In 2011 he was named CEO of the Company.

Return to the ESA

In October 2011 Duque returned to his position in the European Space Agency, retaking his position as an atronaut. Until 2015 he was the leader of the Flight Operations Office, with responsibility for ESA operations in the ISS. After that he assumed the responsibility of the review of future ESA manned flights, within the ESA's astronaut corps.

Minister

After the success of the motion of no confidence against the Spanish government in June 2018, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez named Pedro Duque Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities.^[2]