Robert S. Kimbrough

Shane Kimbrough
Astronaut
Nationality American
Status Active
Born (1967-06-04) June 4, 1967
Killeen, Texas
Other occupation
 Army aviator
Rank Colonel, retired (United States), USA
Time in space
 188 days 23 hours 15 minutes
Selection 2004 NASA Group 19
Total EVAs
 6
Total EVA time
 39 hours
Missions STS-126, Soyuz MS-02 (Expedition 49/50)
Mission insignia

Robert Shane Kimbrough (born June 4, 1967) is a retired United States Army officer, and a NASA astronaut. He was part of the first group of candidates selected for NASA astronaut training following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Kimbrough is a veteran of two spaceflights, the first being a Space Shuttle flight, and the second being a 6-month mission to the ISS on board a Russian Soyuz craft. He was the commander of the International Space Station for Expedition 50, and returned to Earth in April 2017.

Biography

Born June 4, 1967, in Killeen, Texas, Kimbrough attended The Lovett School in Atlanta, Georgia, graduating in 1985. Kimbrough graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1989 with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, and served as an Apache helicopter pilot in the first Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Kimbrough later attended and graduated from Georgia Tech with a M.S. in Operations Research in 1998. He helped NASA train astronauts on landing procedures for several years before he himself was selected for training.

He retired from the U.S. Army with the rank of Colonel.

NASA career

STS-126

STS-126 and Expedition 18 group photo.

Kimbrough was a Mission Specialist on STS-126, which launched on November 14, 2008. During the mission Kimbrough performed two EVAs. On the tenth anniversary of the International Space Station, Stefanyshyn-Piper and Kimbrough successfully conducted the mission's second EVA, and Kimbrough's first, which lasted 6 hours, 45 minutes.[1] Kimbrough's second EVA was performed on November 24, 2008, and lasted 6 hours and 7 minutes. At the completion of the mission, Kimbrough's cumulative spacewalk time, was 12 hours, 52 minutes.[2]

Expedition 49/50

Shane Kimbrough during EVA on March 24, 2017

Kimbrough launched onboard Soyuz MS-02 to the International Space Station on October 19, 2016 as part of a four-month mission for Expedition 49/50.[3] Kimbrough became commander of Expedition 50 upon the departure of Soyuz MS-01 on October 28.[4]

On January 6, 2017, Kimbrough performed his third EVA, along with Peggy Whitson. During the EVA, they installed three new adapter plates and hooked up electrical connectors preparing the way to replace the ISS batteries. The EVA lasted 6 hours and 32 minutes.[5]

Kimbrough during an EVA with Peggy Whitson

Kimbrough performed his fourth EVA with astronaut Thomas Pesquet on January 13, 2017. During the EVA, they prepared the infrastructure to replace the ISS batteries. The EVA lasted for 5 hours and 58 minutes.[6]

On March 23 2017, Kimbrough performed his fifth EVA with Thomas Pesquet. The main objective was to prepare the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3) for installation of the second International Docking Adapter (IDA), which will accommodate commercial crew vehicle dockings.The EVA lasted for 6 hours and 34 minutes.[7]

Kimbrough photographed during a meal with crew members Andrei Borisenko and Oleg Novitskiy

On March 30, 2017 Kimbrough performed his sixth EVA with Peggy Whitson. During the EVA they connected the PMA-3 as well as installing new shields in Node 3 axial shields after losing one shield. Additionally installed another upgraded computer relay boxes on the station's truss. The EVA lasted 7 hours and 4 minutes. During this EVA Whitson became the record holder for the most EVAs for a woman (8 EVAs).[8]

Kimbrough carried a soccer ball recovered from the wreckage of the Space Shuttle Challenger to the ISS, after which it was returned to the family of Challenger astronaut Ellison Onizuka and put on display at Clear Lake High School in Houston. [9]

References

  1. ↑ William Harwood for CBS News (2008). "Spacewalk No. 2 ends". Spaceflightnow.com. Retrieved 20 November 2008.
  2. ↑ William Harwood (November 24, 2008). "Spacewalk No. 4 ends". Spaceflightnow.com. Retrieved November 24, 2008.
  3. ↑ "Future Expeditions". NASA. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
  4. ↑ "'Golden' expedition: 50th commander takes charge of space station". collectspace.com. 28 October 2016. Retrieved 22 November 2016.
  5. ↑ "Whitson Becomes World's Oldest Female Spacewalker, as EVA-38 Replaces Aging Space Station Batteries". January 6, 2017. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  6. ↑ "Second Spacewalk of 2017 Successfully Complete". NASA. January 13, 2017. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  7. ↑ "Astronauts carry out first of three station spacewalks". CBS news. March 24, 2017. Retrieved March 28, 2017.
  8. ↑ Garcia, Mark (March 30, 2017). "Peggy Whitson Breaks Spacewalking Record". NASA.
  9. ↑ Malinowski, Tonya (2018). "NASA astronaut Ellison Onizuka's soccer ball that survived the Challenger explosion". ESPN.com. ESPN. Retrieved July 4, 2018.
Preceded by
Anatoli Ivanishin		 ISS Expedition Commander
October 30, 2016 to April 10, 2017		 Succeeded by
Peggy Whitson
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