Thuot, Pierre J., 1955-

Dates

• Existence: 1955 -

Biographical Information

Pierre J. Thuot was born on May 19, 1955. Thuot graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics in 1977. Thuot graduated from Naval Flight officer training in 1978, and was deployed with Fighter Squadron 14 to the Mediterranean and Caribbean Sea aboard the USS John F. Kennedy and the USS Independence. While deployed, he attended Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN). He was selected to attend the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in which he graduated from in June of 1983. Thuot then worked as a project test flight officer for the Naval Air Test Center flying the F-14A Tomcat, A-6E Intruder, and the F-4J Phantom II until 1984. He then returned to the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School as a flight instructor. At this time, he graduated from the University of Southern California in 1985 with a Master of Science degree in Systems Management.

Thuot was selected by NASA in June of 1985. His first assignments were technical including duties as CAPCOM for various shuttle missions. Thuot's first spaceflight was on STS-36 Atlantis as a mission specialist. It launched on February 28, 1990.

His next spaceflight was STS-49 Endeavor on May 7, 1992. Again, Thuot was a mission specialist for this mission. Along with astronauts Rick Hieb and Tom Akers, Thuot preformed the first 3-man space walk in order to repair the Intelsat VI satellite. This was the longest spacewalk at the time, breaking the Apollo 17 record. Thuot's job during the spacewalk was to capture the satellite and attach it to the Shuttle so that it could be moved into the cargo bay and repaired.

Thuot's third mission was aboard STS-62 Columbia. This shuttle launched on March 4, 1994 with the United States Microgravity Payload (USMP - 2) and the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology (OAST – 2) experiments. More than 60 experiments were conducted during this flight including human physiology, robotics, atmospheric ozone monitoring, and spacecraft glow.

Thuot left NASA in June of 1995 and returned to the Navy as an Associate Chairman in the Aerospace Engineering Department at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He now works for Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory as a Senior Systems Engineer in Aerospace Systems Analysis Force Projection Department.

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