{"id":50830,"date":"2012-03-12T21:48:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T01:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/?migration=converted-node-350418"},"modified":"2023-07-26T14:43:57","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T18:43:57","slug":"record-setting-astronaut-lopez-alegria-departs-nasa","status":"publish","type":"press-release","link":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/news-release\/record-setting-astronaut-lopez-alegria-departs-nasa\/","title":{"rendered":"Record-Setting Astronaut Lopez-Alegria Departs NASA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>HOUSTON \u2013 Michael Lopez-Alegria, NASA\u2019s most experienced spacewalker and the American holding the record for the single longest spaceflight mission, has left the agency.<br>\nLopez-Alegria flew on four missions and performed 10 spacewalks during his career. He most recently served in the Flight Crew Operations Directorate at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston as assistant director for the International Space Station (ISS).<br>\n\u201cMike has faithfully served the Flight Crew Operations Directorate for many years,\u201d said Janet Kavandi, director of Flight Crew Operations at Johnson. \u201cHis unique background and diplomatic skills have made him an outstanding FCOD assistant director for space station and lead for the Multilateral Crew Operations Panel. Mike\u2019s tireless dedication to the safety and well-being of space station crews is well known. We will miss him and wish him well in his future endeavors.\u201d<br>\nDuring his career, Lopez-Alegria logged more than 257 days in space, including 215 days as commander of the Expedition 14 mission to the ISS, which stands as the single longest spaceflight by an American. Lopez-Alegria also logged more than 67 hours during his 10 spacewalks, more than any other American, and second only in the record books to Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyev.<br>\n\u201cMike has been a huge asset to the astronaut office during the course of his career,\u201d said Peggy Whitson, chief of the Astronaut Office at Johnson. \u201cHis contributions in spacewalking, shuttle, space station and Soyuz operations are notable and very distinguished. Personally, we will miss his humor and insights and wish him all the best.\u201d<br>\nLopez-Alegria flew on three space shuttle missions. The first, STS-73 in 1995, focused on science experiments. He then served as NASA\u2019s director of operations at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, where he was in charge of American astronauts training for flights to the Russian space station Mir and the ISS. Lopez-Alegria later flew on STS-92 in 2000 and STS-113 in 2002, delivering critical truss elements to the station.<br>\nExpedition 14 Commander Lopez-Alegria and his crew launched to the ISS on a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sept. 18, 2006. This fourth and final mission earned Lopez-Alegria the spaceflight record. The crew conducted a seven-month mission to operate, maintain, build and use the station and its science facilities. During the expedition, two uncrewed Russian Progress cargo vehicles arrived and departed the station and a space shuttle assembly mission reconfigured the station\u2019s power supply. Lopez-Alegria\u2019s mission ended with a Soyuz landing on the Kazakh steppe on April 21, 2007.<br>\nFor Lopez-Alegria\u2019s complete biography, visit:<br>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jsc.nasa.gov\/Bios\/htmlbios\/lopez-al.html\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.jsc.nasa.gov\/Bios\/htmlbios\/lopez-al.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2013 end \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"\/home\/hqnews\/2012\/mar\/HQ_12-077_Lopez_Alegria_Departs.txt\">text-only version of this release<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NASA press releases and other information are available automatically by sending a blank e-mail message to <a href=\"mailto:hqnews-subscribe@mediaservices.nasa.gov\">hqnews-subscribe@mediaservices.nasa.gov<\/a>. To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send a blank e-mail message to <a href=\"mailto:hqnews-unsubscribe@mediaservices.nasa.gov\">hqnews-unsubscribe@mediaservices.nasa.gov<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a class=\"featureLnk\" href=\"\/audience\/formedia\/features\/index.html\">Back to NASA Newsroom<\/a> | <a class=\"featureLnk\" href=\"\/home\/index.html\">Back to NASA Homepage<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Michael Curie<br>\nHeadquarters, Washington<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>202-358-1100<br>\n<a href=\"mailto:michael.curie@nasa.gov\">michael.curie@nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\nNicole Cloutier-Lemasters<br>\nJohnson Space Center, Houston<br>\n281-483-5111<br>\n<a href=\"mailto:nicole.cloutier-1@nasa.gov\">nicole.cloutier-1@nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HOUSTON \u2013 Michael Lopez-Alegria, NASA\u2019s most experienced spacewalker and the American holding the record for the single longest spaceflight mission, has left the agency. Lopez-Alegria flew on four missions and performed 10 spacewalks during his career. He most recently served in the Flight Crew Operations Directorate at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston as assistant [...]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":68744,"template":"","meta":{"nasa_hds_core_meta_l10n":"en-US","nasa_hds_core_meta_article_editor":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_article_contacts":[],"nasa_hds_core_meta_article_topic":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_linked_locations":[],"nasa_hds_core_meta_article_related_articles":[],"hds_migrate_meta_pr_release_id":"12-077","hds_migrate_meta_pr_release_type":"RELEASE","nasa_hds_core_meta_location_x":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_location_y":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_gallery_images":[]},"categories":[2735,2861,2655,2671,2723],"news-tags":[],"internal-terms":[9508],"coauthors":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Record-Setting Astronaut Lopez-Alegria Departs NASA","url":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/news-release\/record-setting-astronaut-lopez-alegria-departs-nasa\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/news-release\/record-setting-astronaut-lopez-alegria-departs-nasa\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/s132-e-007808.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/s132-e-007808.jpg"},"articleSection":"Missions","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NASA"}],"creator":["NASA"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"NASA","logo":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/themes\/nasa\/assets\/images\/nasa-logo.svg"},"keywords":["Missions","Shuttle-Mir","International Space Station (ISS)","Johnson Space Center","NASA History"],"dateCreated":"2012-03-13T01:48:00Z","datePublished":"2012-03-13T01:48:00Z","dateModified":"2023-07-26T18:43:57Z"},"rendered":"<meta name=\"parsely-title\" content=\"Record-Setting Astronaut Lopez-Alegria Departs NASA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-link\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/news-release\/record-setting-astronaut-lopez-alegria-departs-nasa\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-type\" content=\"post\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-image-url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/s132-e-007808.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-pub-date\" content=\"2012-03-13T01:48:00Z\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-section\" content=\"Missions\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-tags\" content=\"Missions,Shuttle-Mir,International Space Station (ISS),Johnson Space Center,NASA History\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-author\" content=\"NASA\" \/>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/nasa.gov\/p.js"},"read_time":3,"featured_image":{"id":68744,"file":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/s132-e-007808.jpg","title":"s132-e-007808","alt":"International Space Station","caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press-release\/50830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press-release\/50830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138063,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press-release\/50830\/revisions\/138063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50830"},{"taxonomy":"news-tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-tags?post=50830"},{"taxonomy":"internal-terms","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-terms?post=50830"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=50830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}