Record-Setting Astronaut Lopez-Alegria Departs NASA

Mar. 12, 2012

Michael Curie
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
michael.curie@nasa.gov

Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
nicole.cloutier-1@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 12-077

RECORD-SETTING ASTRONAUT LOPEZ-ALEGRIA DEPARTS NASA

HOUSTON -- Michael Lopez-Alegria, NASA's most experienced spacewalker
and the American holding the record for the single longest
spaceflight mission, has left the agency.

Lopez-Alegria flew on four missions and performed 10 spacewalks during
his career. He most recently served in the Flight Crew Operations
Directorate at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston as assistant
director for the International Space Station (ISS).

"Mike has faithfully served the Flight Crew Operations Directorate for
many years," said Janet Kavandi, director of Flight Crew Operations
at Johnson. "His unique background and diplomatic skills have made
him an outstanding FCOD assistant director for space station and lead
for the Multilateral Crew Operations Panel. Mike's tireless
dedication to the safety and well-being of space station crews is
well known. We will miss him and wish him well in his future
endeavors."

During his career, Lopez-Alegria logged more than 257 days in space,
including 215 days as commander of the Expedition 14 mission to the
ISS, which stands as the single longest spaceflight by an American.
Lopez-Alegria also logged more than 67 hours during his 10
spacewalks, more than any other American, and second only in the
record books to Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyev.

"Mike has been a huge asset to the astronaut office during the course
of his career," said Peggy Whitson, chief of the Astronaut Office at
Johnson. "His contributions in spacewalking, shuttle, space station
and Soyuz operations are notable and very distinguished. Personally,
we will miss his humor and insights and wish him all the best."

Lopez-Alegria flew on three space shuttle missions. The first, STS-73
in 1995, focused on science experiments. He then served as NASA's
director of operations at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
in Star City, Russia, where he was in charge of American astronauts
training for flights to the Russian space station Mir and the ISS.
Lopez-Alegria later flew on STS-92 in 2000 and STS-113 in 2002,
delivering critical truss elements to the station.

Expedition 14 Commander Lopez-Alegria and his crew launched to the ISS
on a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on
Sept. 18, 2006. This fourth and final mission earned Lopez-Alegria
the spaceflight record. The crew conducted a seven-month mission to
operate, maintain, build and use the station and its science
facilities. During the expedition, two uncrewed Russian Progress
cargo vehicles arrived and departed the station and a space shuttle
assembly mission reconfigured the station's power supply.
Lopez-Alegria's mission ended with a Soyuz landing on the Kazakh
steppe on April 21, 2007.

For Lopez-Alegria's complete biography, visit:

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/lopez-al.html

-end-

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