Joseph M.

Acaba

Joseph Michael "Joe" Acaba (born May 17, 1967) is an educator, hydrogeologist, and NASA astronaut.[1][2] In May 2004 he became the first person of Puerto Rican heritage to be named as a NASA astronaut candidate, when he was selected as a member of NASA Astronaut Training Group 19.[3] He completed his training on February 10, 2006 and was assigned to STS-119, which flew from March 15 to March 28, 2009 to deliver the final set of solar arrays to the International Space Station.[4] Acaba served as a Flight Engineer aboard the International Space Station, having launched on May 15, 2012.[5] He arrived at the space station on May 17 and returned to Earth on September 17, 2012 at 6:53am Moscow Standard Time when touchdown was officially recorded by the Russian Federal Space Agency. Early life Acaba's parents, Ralph and Elsie Acab, from Hatillo, Puerto Rico, moved in the mid-1960s to Inglewood, California where he was born.[8] They later moved to Anaheim, California.[9] Since his childhood, Acaba enjoyed reading, especially science fiction. In school, he excelled in both science and math. As a child, his parents constantly exposed him to educational films, but it was the 8-mm film showing astronaut Neil Armstrong's Moon landing which really intrigued him about outer space. During his senior year in high school, Acaba became interested in scuba diving and became a certified scuba diver through a job training program at his school. This experience inspired him to further his academic education in the field of geology. James C. Adamson

James Craig Adamson (born March 3, 1946) is a former NASA astronaut and retired Colonel of the United States Army. He is married with 3 children. James Adamson flew on two missions, STS-28 and STS-43, and completed 263 orbits and 334 hours in space. After retiring from NASA, he was recruited by Allied Signal (later merged with Honeywell) where he retired in 2001. Adamson has logged over 3,000 hours in over 30 different types of helicopters and airplanes. Education Adamson completed his Bachelor of Science in Engineering and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army at United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1969. In 1977, he completed a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University. In 2010, he completed his Chartered Director certification, graduating from The Directors College, (a joint venture between McMaster University and the Conference Board of Canada.