User talk:Stephen Jeon

Stephen Jeon

Stephen Jeon (born February 14, 1966) is an Korean American astronaut who was selected as one of two finalists in the Korean Astronaut Program: Group 20. he was launched into International Space Station (ISS) alongside two Russian cosmonauts as part of Expedition 44/45 On July 22, 2015. He spent around 6 months in space; on October 19, he returned to the surface Earth.

Early life —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Stephen Jeon was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1966 to a Korean mother[5][6] and Korean father in the Air Force[7] his Korean name is Hyo-bok Jeon (Hangul: 전효복. His family later Immigrated to the Midwestern United States, but he spent most of his childhood in England. He attended Lakenheath American High School for a year before moving back to the United States and graduating from James W. Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax, Virginia in 1980. After entering the United States Air Force Academy, he joined the Air Force Parachuting Team. In 1985, he received a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in biology with a minor in Korean Language from the Air Force Academy. In 1986, he received a Master of Science (MS) degree in cardiovascular physiology from Colorado State University (CSU), in part for his work completing cardiovascular countermeasure research at NASA's Space Physiology Lab. He subsequently obtained a Doctorate of Medicine (MD) from the University of Colorado in 1990, and went on to complete a three-year residency in emergency medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. In 1997, he completed a post-doctoral fellowship and a Master of Health Informatics (MHI) at the University of Minnesota. He also completed a Master of Public Health (MPH) at the University of Texas Medical Branch in 2007 and a residency in aerospace medicine in 2000.[8]

NASA career ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Stephen started studying public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He began working for NASA at the Johnson Space Center in 2006. He went on to support ISS training operation at Star City, Russia and became the deputy crew surgeon for STS-130 and Expedition 24.

In June 2006, he was one of nine astronaut candidates selected by NASA out of 3500 applications and began training as part of NASA Astronaut Group 20. The nine Americans, as well as two Canadian Space Agency candidates, 2 Korean candidates and three JAXA candidates, started training at the Johnson Space Center in August 2006.[9] The 14 candidates carried trained in various different fields including T-38 flight training, Extravehicular activity training, survival, International Space Station operations and other various skills. The group completed their training and Stephen and his 13 classmates became eligible for future flight assignments on November 4, 2011.

In between finishing training, he worked in the Spacecraft Communicator and Extravehicular Activity branches of NASA, and he was the Spacecraft Communicator lead for Expedition 30.

From June 18 to 27, 2012 Stephen was commander of the NEEMO 22 mission to the Aquarius Reef Base, located 19 meters underwater off the coast of Florida. The NEEMO 22 mission focused on both exploration spacewalks and objectives related to the International Space Station and deep space missions. As an analogue for future planetary science concepts and strategies, the mission's crew also performed marine science under the guidance of Florida International University's marine science department. Objectives for the crew also included testing spaceflight countermeasure equipment, technology for precisely tracking equipment in habitat and studies of body composition and sleep. The crew also assessed hardware sponsored by ESA that will help crew members evacuate someone who has been injured on a future lunar spacewalk.

Expedition 44/45

In 2013, he began training at the Gagarin Space Center and was assigned as backup flight engineer for Expedition 42/43 which launched on Soyuz TMA-15M.[10] He was later assigned to Expedition 44/45 as a flight engineer. On July 22, 2015, Stephen launched on his first mission to the ISS alongside Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui onboard Soyuz TMA-17M.[8] Six hours later the trio docked to the ISS, officially joining Expedition 44 alongside Soyuz TMA-16M crewmembers Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos and Scott Kelly of NASA. In November 2015, while on the ISS, Stephen played a set of bagpipes manufactured by McCallum Bagpipes Ltd as a memorial to Victor Hurst, who died in October of that year. McCallum Bagpipes was chosen to manufacture the bagpipes because they make them in plastic, which is easily sanitized and transported, ideal for space exploration. This is thought to be the first time the Great Highland bagpipes have been played in space.[11]

Personal life ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Stephen was once married to his late wife Bae Lee but had no children due to his wife health problem. He has said that he enjoys running, SCUBA diving, reading, movies, photography, amateur astronomy, working with computers, and church activities.[8][27]

Stephen is also a science fiction fan,[28] and in 2015 was a Special Guest at the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention while aboard the ISS.[29] He participated in the Hugo Award ceremony as a guest presenter via videoconferencing, announcing Cixin Liu's win of the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel.[30] He was also a special guest at Worldcon in Helsinki 2017. In 2017, he also served as the Toastmaster for the Nebula Awards in Pittsburgh.[31]

Stephen was a Boy Scout and attained the rank of Eagle Scout. During the 23rd World Scout Jamboree in Japan in 2015.

See also ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Timeline of space travel by nationality Yi So-yeon References ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— ITH, South Korea to announce its first astronaut Houston Chronicle, "South Korea taps robotics expert as 1st astronaut" "South Korea Switches to Backup for First Astronaut Flight". space.com. 2008-03-10. Retrieved 2008-04-08. "South Korea Will Send Woman Into Space". globalsecurity.org. 2008-03-10. Retrieved 2008-04-08. "S. Korea names woman as first astronaut". CNN. 2008-03-10. Archived from the original on 2008-03-15. Retrieved 2008-03-10. External links ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Korean Went Into Space in 2008 Two astronaut finalists pass medical checks Space facts biography of Stephen Jeon