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
My running ambition is to keep doing it until I'm way past the point where I have any business running. Just to keep doing it throughout my whole life—to stay fit and feel good.
I think it's good to have competition. Now we have a third country that can launch astronauts, so it's good for all of us. It makes us a little bit more competitive and wanting to be the leader.
Coming down under a parachute is quite different as well. You hit the ground pretty hard, but all the systems work very well to keep it from hurting, so it doesn't even hurt when you hit. It was a great experience to be able to do both.
Tinkering is something we need to know how to do in order to keep something like the space station running. I am a tinkerer by nature.
I loved flying as much as I thought I would and continue to fly aircraft.
There is no one area of chemical engineering that specifically helped me in my career as an astronaut, it was more the general education in engineering. Also, it was a very difficult and rigorous course. So, it made me strong and resourceful.
I had done everything I could do as an astronaut, and we have a long line of inexperienced astronauts waiting for their first missions, and so my role really should be to step aside and help them prepare for their missions, rather than to try to get another mission.
Of course, you'll have to meet the physical and psychological demands. A space walk takes a lot of energy.
Space is very unforgiving business
I would say keep supporting space flight, keep telling the public and the politicians why it's important to advance science and explore the galaxy. I encourage the Japanese to keep doing what they're doing.
I'm Chinese-American, of course, and so it's very interesting to see China actually launch their own astronauts, becoming the third nation, following the United States and Russia, to do so.
One day, people will be able to buy tickets to visit space.
As commander I was responsible for the overall success of the mission, and so I had to know at least a little bit about everything.
The mental stress shouldn't be underplayed. When you're out there doing the work, you can't help but feel the pressure.