Leroy Chiao
Leroy Chiao
Leroy Chiaois an American engineer, former NASA astronaut, entrepreneur, motivational speaker and engineering consultant. Chiao flew on three shuttle flights, and was the commander of Expedition 10, where he lived on board the International Space Station from October 13, 2004 to April 24, 2005. He is also a co-author and researcher for the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity Project...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAstronaut
Date of Birth28 August 1960
CityMilwaukee, WI
CountryUnited States of America
We've been soaking everything up in this week of transition, ... The station looks quite a bit different from the last time I was here.
We think Mars exploration is in our future. It may be a little ways out there possibly but that's the whole essence of being human is that we'd like to explore and Mars is something we have dreamed about and set our sights on.
I think one of the big moments for me was the second EVA. Basically it was the last EVA of my career, my flying career, so it was poignant for me to look out in to the black, open space and bid space farewell.
Of course it's exciting to be in space, exciting to look down at the Earth and perform the science experiments and maintenance work.
I spent a lot of my time working in the American module, and he would stay in the Russian segment working on his things, and we'd meet up at meal times. So it actually worked out very well.
But a lot of that kind of work is done pre-flight, coordinating efforts with the flight directors and the ground teams, and figuring out how you're going to operate together.
Well, it's still a bit uncertain, but I will do the consulting, and I'll see how I can contribute. But I'm sure whatever I do will involve the space program. That's where my passion is.
The most interesting thing was looking out the window and taking photographs of different places on Earth.
Our task was doing maintenance and repairs to keep the station in a good state for the return of the shuttle flights and resumption of major ISS construction.
There were different challenges along the way. Certainly the food shortage was unpleasant.
My parents always tried to teach us the best of both, the Chinese ethic of hard work and education and the American ethic of innovation of aspiration.
But it's also a lot of hard work, and it's a long time to be away from your family and friends. So I had a lot of different feelings.
I hope that China will continue with space exploration. It would be logical to have international co-operation. I hope that it will come about and that I can be involved in it.
One of my challenges was to try to photograph the Great Wall of China. And I did actually take some photos, but it was hard to discern the wall with the naked eye.