Pedro Duque

Personal data

Born 14 March 1963 in Madrid, Spain. He is married and has 3 children. Enjoys diving, swimming and cycling.

Education

Graduated with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Aeronáuticos, Universidad Politécnica, Madrid in 1986.

Organisations

Spanish Academy of Engineering.

Special Honours

Russian "Order of Friendship" awarded by President Boris Yeltsin of the Russian Federation in March 1995. "Great Cross of Aeronautical Merit" awarded by the King of Spain in February 1999. "Principe de Asturias" prize for International Cooperation shared with three other astronauts.

Experience

Duque joined GMV (Grupo Mecánica del Vuelo) in 1986 and moved to ESA's European Space Operations Center (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, to give support to the Precise Orbit Determination Group. Until 1992, he worked on the development of models for orbit determination, algorithms and implementation of orbit computation software. He was also part of the Flight Control Team for ESA's ERS-1 satellite and EURECA, the European Retrievable Carrier.

Duque was selected to join the ESA Astronaut Corps based at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany, in May 1992. He completed the Introductory and Basic Training Programs at EAC and a four-week training program at TsPK (the Russian Cosmonaut Training Centre) in Star City, Russia.

In August 1993, Duque returned to TsPK to train for the joint ESA-Russian Euromir 94 mission. During Euromir 94, which took place from 3 October to 4 November 1994, he was the prime Crew Interface Coordinator (CIC) in the Russian Mission Control Centre (TsUP) in Moscow. He served as coordinator between the crew onboard Mir and the European scientists.

In May 1995, NASA selected Duque as an Alternate Payload Specialist for the Space Shuttle Life and Microgravity Spacelab (LMS) mission (STS-78) flown in June-July 1996. During this 17-day mission, Duque was one of the two CIC's, acting as the interface between researchers on ground and the crew onboard the shuttle Columbia for all experiment-related issues. ESA had five major facilities on the flight and was responsible for more than half of the experiments performed.

In August 1996, Duque entered the Mission Specialist Class at NASA/Johnson Space Center in Houston. This training led to his certification as Mission Specialist in April 1998, qualifying him for assignments on board the Space Shuttle.

In 1999, Duque was assigned to ESA/ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, providing support to the Module Projects Division within the Directorate of Manned Spaceflight and Microgravity.

He worked with the Columbus and Cupola Projects as integrated crew support until 2002, and again for several months after his second flight. Among the tasks assigned were: review of design from operability and maintainability points of view; ergonomic evaluation of the internal and external features of the module; evaluation of displays and procedures and participation in safety reviews.

In April 2001 he was assigned to the first ISS advanced training class and underwent preparation until 2003 that qualified him for one of the first European long-term flights on board ISS.

Pedro Duque was seconded by ESA as Director of Operations of the Spanish User Support and Operations Centre (USOC) in Madrid, which is managed by the Instituto da Riva/Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (IDR/UPM). There he managed the implementation and first operations of the Centre until 2006.

In October 2006, Duque took special leave from ESA to lead an Earth Observation project. From that point on and until 2011, he led Deimos Imaging S.L. (DMI) first as Managing Director and then as Executive President. DMI is a fully private company that operates a complete Earth Observation system on a commercial basis with its own satellite and ground stations.

Spaceflight experience

Duque flew as Mission Specialist on the Space Shuttle Discovery, STS-95 mission (29 October to 7 November 1998). This nine-day mission was dedicated to research in weightlessness and the study of the Sun. Duque was responsible, among others, for the five ESA scientific facilities on board and for the extensive computer system and configurations used on the Shuttle.

From 18 to 28 October 2003, Pedro Duque participated in the Cervantes Mission. During this 10-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS), Duque served as Flight Engineer on the Soyuz-TMA, launching with the Expedition Eight crew and landing with Expedition Seven. Duque carried out an extensive experiment programme in the fields of life and physical sciences, earth observation, education and technology, including experiments in the Microgravity Science Glovebox, a research facility developed in Europe.

Current assignment

In October 2011 Duque returned to ESA after his special leave as a member of ESA’s European Astronaut Corps, whose home base is the European Astronaut Centre located in Cologne, Germany. His assignment is Head of the Flight Operations Office. This Office, located at the Columbus Control Centre near Munich, supervises the work of the flight controller and support personnel that perform the ground operations of the European module on the International Space Station and its utilisation programme.