Andy Thomas was born in Adelaide 18/12/1951. His life long fascination with space flight might be traced back to 1957 when, as a boy, he watched with his father as the Earth's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, orbited over his home town.
He was educated at St Peter's College in Adelaide and then at the University of Adelaide. In 1972 he gained a Bachelor of Engineering with first-class honours in mechanical engineering and received his doctorate in mechanical engineering in 1977. In 1978 he was nominated for the William Culross prize for most outstanding research carried out at the University
In March 1992, Andy was amongst 19 new astronaut candidates announced by NASA. Then in June 1995, he was selected with six others to fly a mission in the shuttle Endeavour on a nine day mission.
In August 1997 Andy Thomas was assigned as a backup astronaut to Dave Wolf, who was preparing to be the last American astronaut to fly in Mir. But things changed dramatically in June of the following year when the Mir space station suffered a collision with an unmanned supply spacecraft. This necessitated a reshuffling of the American astronauts' schedules and Dave Wolf's tour was moved forward while Andy Thomas replaced him on the last remaining mission
In January 1998, space shuttle Endeavour blasted off for a rendezvous with Mir 400 kilometers above Earth. Andy Thomas spent 141 days in space, 130 of them living and working aboard the Mir space station.
STS-102 Discovery (March 8-21, 2001) was the eighth Shuttle mission to visit the International Space Station and Dr. Thomas’s third flight. Mission accomplishments included the delivery of the Expedition-2 crew and logistics resupply with the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, and the return to earth of the Expedition-1 crew. During the mission, Dr. Thomas performed an EVA of 6.5 hours to install components to the outside of the space station. Mission duration was 307 hours and 49 minutes.
links
Visit to University by Andy Thomas
NASA Biography
A Talk With Andy Thomas on Mir
Born in Sydney on 28/5/1944. In 1960 he was awarded a scholarship to Sydney
University as a mathematics honours student, it was during this time that his interest in oceanography would develop. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree with honours in applied mathematics, he joined the Royal Australian Navy where he helped set up an oceanographic unit at Rushcutters Bay in Sydney.
Born on 5/3/1935 in Melbourne, Phil Chapman was brought up in Sydney. He graduated from Sydeny University in 1956 with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and mathematics. In 1958 he was stationed at Mawson Base in Antarctica as a member of the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition for which he received the British Polar Medal in 1963.
He married Pamela Gatenby in 1959. 
