Encyclopedia Astronautica
Kregel

Kregel
Credit: www.spacefacts.de - www.spacefacts.de

Educated USAFA; Patuxent.

NAME: Kevin R. Kregel

NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:

Born September 16, 1956. Grew up in Amityville, New York. Married to the former Jeanne F. Kammer of Farmingdale, New York. They have four children. His parents, Alfred H. Kregel Jr., and Frances T. Kregel, are deceased.

EDUCATION:

Graduated from Amityville Memorial High School, Amityville, New York, in 1974; received a bachelor of science degree in astronautical engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1978; master's degree in public administration from Troy State University in 1988.

SPECIAL HONORS:

Air Force Meritorious Service Medal; Air Force Commendation Medal; Navy Commendation Medal; two NASA Space Flight Medals.

EXPERIENCE:

Kregel graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1978, and earned his pilot wings in August 1979 at Williams Air Force Base, Arizona. From 1980 to 1983 he was assigned to F111 aircraft at RAF Lakenheath. While serving as an exchange officer flying A-6E aircraft with the U.S. Navy at NAS Whidbey Island, Seattle, and aboard the USS Kitty Hawk, Kregel made 66 carrier landings during a cruise of the Western Pacific. His next assignment was an exchange tour at the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Maryland. Upon graduation he was assigned to Eglin AFB, Florida, conducting weapons and electronic systems testing on the F111, F15, and the initial weapons certification test of the F15E aircraft. Kregel resigned from active duty in 1990 in order to work for NASA. He has logged over 5,000 flight hours in 30 different aircraft.

NASA EXPERIENCE:

In April 1990, Kregel was employed by NASA as an aerospace engineer and instructor pilot. Stationed at Ellington Field, Houston, Texas, his primary responsibilities included flying as an instructor pilot in the Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA) and conducting the initial flight test of the T38 avionics upgrade aircraft.

Selected by NASA in March 1992, Kregel reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1992. He completed one year of training and is qualified for assignment as a pilot on future Space Shuttle flight crews. Initially assigned to the Mission Support Branch of the Astronaut Office, Kregel served on the Astronaut Support Personnel team at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida supporting Space Shuttle launches and landings. A veteran of two space flights, Kregel has logged over 618 hours in space. Kregel will command the crew of the fourth U.S. Microgravity Payload flight scheduled for an November 1997 launch on board Columbia on mission STS-87.

STS-70 launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on July 13, 1995, and returned there July 22, 1995. The five-member crew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery performed a variety of experiments in addition to deploying the sixth and final NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite. During this 8 day 22 hour mission, the crew completed 142 orbits of the Earth, traveling 3.7 million miles. STS-70 was the first mission controlled from the new combined control center.

STS-78 launched June 20, 1996 and landed July 7, 1996 becoming the longest Space Shuttle mission to date. The Life and Microgravity Spacelab mission served as a model for future studies onboard the International Space Station. The mission included studies sponsored by ten nations, five space agencies, and the crew included a Frenchman, a Canadian, a Spaniard and an Italian.

Birth Place: Amityville, New York.
Status: Inactive.


Born: 1956.09.16.
Spaceflights: 4 .
Total time in space: 52.76 days.

• USA USA More...

• Astronaut Category of persons, applied to those trained for spaceflight outside of Russia and China. More...

• NASA Group 14 - 1992 Requirement: pilot, engineer, and scientist astronauts for space shuttle flights. Nickname: The Hogs. More...

• Test Pilot Category of persons. More...

• STS-70 Crew: Currie, Henricks, Kregel, Thomas, Weber. Deployed TDRS 7. More...

• STS-78 Crew: Brady, Favier, Helms, Henricks, Kregel, Linnehan, Thirsk. Carried Life and Microgravity Spacelab; human biological and microgravity experiments. More...

• STS-87 Crew: Chawla, Doi, Kadenyuk, Kregel, Lindsey, Scott Winston. Microgravity science mission. Spartan 201 was released, but had to be recaptured by hand during EVA. Loss of external tank intertank foam results in over 100 hits on orbiter heat shield. More...

• STS-99 Crew: Gorie, Kavandi, Kregel, Mohri, Thiele, Voss Janice. Deployed the 61 metre long STRM mast, a side-looking radar that digitally mapped the entire land surface of the Earth between latitudes 60 deg N and 54 deg S. More...

• USAF American agency overseeing development of rockets and spacecraft. United States Air Force, USA. More...

• STS The Space Transportation System (Space Shuttle) was conceived originally as a completely reusable system that would provide cheap, routine access to space and replace all American and civilian military launch vehicles. Crippled by technological overreach, political compromise, and budget limitations, it instead ended up costing more than the expendable rockets it was to have replaced. STS sucked the money out of all other NASA projects for half a century. The military abandoned its use after the Challenger shuttle explosion in the 1980's. More...

• NASA Astronaut Biographies, Johnson Space Center, NASA, 1995-present. Web Address when accessed: here.

• NASA Astronaut Training Group 14 selected. - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Barry; Brady; Coleman; Gernhardt; Grunsfeld; Horowitz; Jett; Kregel; Lawrence; Linenger; Linnehan; Lopez-Alegria; Parazynski; Rominger; Scott, Winston; Smith, Steven; Tanner; Thomas, Andrew; Weber. The group was selected to provide pilot, engineer, and scientist astronauts for space shuttle flights.. Qualifications: Pilots: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics. Advanced degree desirable. At least 1,000 flight-hours of pilot-in-command time. Flight test experience desirable. Excellent health. Vision minimum 20/50 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20 vision; maximum sitting blood pressure 140/90. Height between 163 and 193 cm.

  Mission Specialists: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics and minimum three years of related experience or an advanced degree. Vision minimum 20/150 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20. Maximum sitting blood pressure of 140/90. Height between 150 and 193 cm.. Four pilots and 15 mission specialists, nine civilians and ten military. Chosen from 2054 applicants, 87 of which screened in December 1991/January 1992. Five additional international astronauts.

• STS-70 - . Call Sign: Discovery. Crew: Currie; Henricks; Kregel; Thomas; Weber. Payload: Discovery F21 / TDRS 7 [IUS]. Mass: 20,159 kg (44,442 lb). Nation: USA. Related Persons: Currie; Henricks; Kregel; Thomas; Weber. Agency: NASA Houston. Program: STS. Class: Manned. Type: Manned spaceplane. Flight: STS-70. Spacecraft: Discovery. Duration: 8.93 days. Decay Date: 1995-07-22 . USAF Sat Cat: 23612 . COSPAR: 1995-035A. Apogee: 257 km (159 mi). Perigee: 257 km (159 mi). Inclination: 28.4500 deg. Period: 90.50 min. Deployed TDRS 7. Payloads: Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) G/ Inertial Upper Stage (IUS); Bioreactor Demon-stration System (BDS) B; Biological Research in Canisters (BRIC); Commercial Protein Crystal Growth (CPCG); Hand-Held, Earth-Oriented, Real-Time, Cooperative, User-Friendly, Location-Targeting and Environmental System (HER-CULES); Microcapsules in Space (MIS) B; Physiological and Anatomical Rodent Experiment (PARE)/National Institutes of Health (NIH) Rodents (R); Radiation Monitoring Experiment (RME) III; Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) II; Space Tissue Loss (STL)/National Institutes of Health (NIH) Cells (C); Military Applications of Ship Tracks (MAST); Visual Function Tester (VFT) 4; Window Experiment (WINDEX).

• Landing of STS-70 - . Return Crew: Currie; Henricks; Kregel; Thomas; Weber. Nation: USA. Related Persons: Currie; Henricks; Kregel; Thomas; Weber. Program: STS. Flight: STS-70. Summary: STS-70 landed at 12:02 GMT. .

• STS-78 - . Call Sign: Columbia. Crew: Brady; Favier; Helms; Henricks; Kregel; Linnehan; Thirsk. Payload: Columbia F20 / EDO. Nation: USA. Related Persons: Brady; Favier; Helms; Henricks; Kregel; Linnehan; Thirsk. Agency: NASA Houston. Program: STS. Class: Manned. Type: Manned spaceplane. Flight: STS-78. Spacecraft: Columbia. Duration: 16.91 days. Decay Date: 1996-07-07 . USAF Sat Cat: 23931 . COSPAR: 1996-036A. Apogee: 261 km (162 mi). Perigee: 246 km (152 mi). Inclination: 39.0000 deg. Period: 89.60 min. Columbia carried Terence T Henricks, Kevin R Kregel, Susan J Helms, Richard M Linnehan, Charles E Brady, Jr, Jean-Jacques Favier, and Robert Brent Thirsk to orbit. Main payload was the Life and Microgravity Spacelab for conducting human biological and microgravity experiments. Columbia landed safely at Kennedy Space Center on July 7.

• Landing of STS-78 - . Return Crew: Brady; Favier; Helms; Henricks; Kregel; Linnehan; Thirsk. Nation: USA. Related Persons: Brady; Favier; Helms; Henricks; Kregel; Linnehan; Thirsk. Program: Spacelab. Flight: STS-78. Summary: STS-78 landed at 12:36 GMT. .

• STS-87 - . Call Sign: Columbia. Crew: Kregel; Lindsey; Chawla; Scott, Winston; Doi; Kadenyuk. Payload: Columbia F24 / Spartan / USMP-4 Aft. Nation: USA. Related Persons: Kregel; Lindsey; Chawla; Scott, Winston; Doi; Kadenyuk. Agency: NASA Houston. Manufacturer: North American. Program: STS. Class: Manned. Type: Manned spaceplane. Flight: STS-87. Spacecraft: Columbia. Duration: 15.69 days. Decay Date: 1997-12-05 . USAF Sat Cat: 25061 . COSPAR: 1997-073A. Apogee: 279 km (173 mi). Perigee: 273 km (169 mi). Inclination: 28.5000 deg. Period: 90.00 min. OV-102 Columbia was launched on a microgravity science mission. Spartan 201 was released a day late on November 21. However the satellite did not start its automatic orientation maneuver because the crew failed to send it the correct commands prior to release.

  Spartan was recaptured by hand, during a spacewalk by Takao Doi and Winston Scott on November 25. Tests of space station tools went well, but the free-flying Sprint camera subsatellite was not deployed due to lack of time.

  NASA decided not to redeploy Spartan on this mission. During an EVA on Dec 3, Doi and Scott carried out more tests of the Space Station crane. They also deployed the AERCam/Sprint 'football' remote-controlled camera for a free flight in the payload bay.

  Columbia landed on December 5, with a deorbit burn at 11:21 GMT. Touchdown was at 12:20 GMT at Kennedy Space Center.

• Landing of STS-87 - . Return Crew: Kregel; Lindsey; Chawla; Scott, Winston; Doi; Kadenyuk. Nation: USA. Related Persons: Kregel; Lindsey; Chawla; Scott, Winston; Doi; Kadenyuk. Flight: STS-87. Summary: STS-87 landed at 12:20 GMT. .

• STS-99 Mission Status Report #02 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Gorie; Kavandi; Kregel; Mohri; Tani; Thiele; Voss, Janice. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. Summary: Space shuttle astronauts deployed the longest rigid structure ever built in space today and continued work to check out the equipment they will use to produce unrivaled three-dimensional images of the Earth's surface.. Additional Details: here....

• STS-99 Mission Status Report #01 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Gorie; Kavandi; Kregel; Mohri; Thiele; Voss, Janice. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. Summary: With six astronauts on board, Endeavour sped to orbit under cloudless skies from the Kennedy Space Center today to begin the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, the first human space flight of the 21st century.. Additional Details: here....

• STS-99 - . Call Sign: Endeavour. Crew: Kregel; Gorie; Kavandi; Voss, Janice; Mohri; Thiele. Payload: Endeavour F14. Nation: USA. Related Persons: Kregel; Gorie; Kavandi; Voss, Janice; Mohri; Thiele. Agency: NASA Houston. Manufacturer: Boeing. Program: STS. Class: Manned. Type: Manned spaceplane. Flight: STS-99. Spacecraft: Endeavour. Duration: 11.23 days. Decay Date: 2000-02-22 . USAF Sat Cat: 26088 . COSPAR: 2000-010A. Apogee: 234 km (145 mi). Perigee: 226 km (140 mi). Inclination: 57.0000 deg. Period: 89.10 min. On an extremely successful mission the space shuttle Endeavour deployed the 61 metre long STRM mast. This was a side-looking radar that digitally mapped with unprecedented accuracy the entire land surface of the Earth between latitudes 60 deg N and 54 deg S. Sponsors of the flight included the US National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), NASA, and the German and Italian space agencies. Some of the NIMA data would remain classified for exclusive use by the US Department of Defense.

• STS-99 Mission Status Report #03 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Gorie; Kavandi; Kregel; Mohri; Ross; Thiele; Voss, Janice. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. Endeavour astronauts began mapping operations on the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which will provide maps of the Earth unprecedented in accuracy and uniformity. The first swath was begun as the orbiter crossed over southern Asia and continued until Endeavour flew over the continent's eastern coast and moved over the northern Pacific Ocean. The mapping will continue through the mission until the antenna mast is retracted before landing. Additional Details: here....

• STS-99 Mission Status Report #04 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Gorie; Kavandi; Kregel; Mohri; Thiele; Voss, Janice. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. By the time members of Endeavour's Red Team had reached lunchtime on this first full day in space for the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, the radar antennas in the payload bay and at the end of a 200-foot mast had mapped about 1.7 million square miles (4.5 million square kilometers) of the Earth's surface, or the equivalent of about half the area of the United States. Additional Details: here....

• STS-99 Mission Status Report #05 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Kavandi; Kregel; Thiele. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. The first "flycast maneuver" trim burn was completed without a hitch by members of the Endeavour crew early Sunday. A little later, the Payload Operations Center reported that the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission had successfully mapped 7.64 million square miles as of very early Sunday morning. Additional Details: here....

• STS-99 Mission Status Report #06 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Gorie; Kavandi; Kregel; Mohri; Tani; Thiele; Voss, Janice. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission's mapping operation continues to run smoothly, with about 17.7 million square miles of the Earth's surface having been mapped by 7 p.m. Central time. Scientists also reported that 38 percent of landmasses had been mapped thus far in the flight. Despite a problem with a small nitrogen thruster on the end of the 200-foot-long mast, both the C-band and X-band radars continue to perform as expected, and the thruster problem has had no impact on mapping operations. Additional Details: here....

• STS-99 Mission Status Report #08 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Gorie; Kavandi; Kregel; Mohri; Thiele; Voss, Janice. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. "As excited as a kid on Christmas day" is how Shuttle Radar Topography Mission project engineer Ed Caro described his reaction to the progress of the radar-mapping mission thus far. Operations onboard Endeavour continued without interruption, even without the availability of a small nitrogen thruster on the end of the extended boom. By midday, about 24 million square miles had been mapped once, and 9 million square miles twice. That's more than half the planned coverage for the mission. Additional Details: here....

• STS-99 Mission Status Report #07 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Gorie; Kavandi; Kregel; Mohri; Thiele; Voss, Janice. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. Endeavour crewmembers successfully completed their second "flycast maneuver" trim burn early Monday, as the spacecraft continued to gather data that will greatly improve our topographical knowledge of the Earth's surface. Scientists already have expressed delight with low-resolution "quick look" data, which revealed features not shown on today's best maps. Additional Details: here....

• STS-99 Mission Status Report #09 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Gorie; Kavandi; Kregel; Mohri; Thiele; Voss, Janice. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. Summary: Endeavour astronauts had completed mapping well over half the targeted Earth land surface by early Tuesday, and scientists continued to express delight at the quality of information they were seeing.. Additional Details: here....

• STS-99 Mission Status Report #10 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Gorie; Kavandi; Kregel; Mohri; Thiele; Voss, Janice. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. New radar images of Brazil, South Africa and the South Island of New Zealand were unveiled this afternoon by elated scientists of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. "This snapshot of Earth will be used for decades to come," said deputy project scientist Dr. Tom Farr. Additional Details: here....

• STS-99 Mission Status Report #11 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Gorie; Kavandi; Kregel; Mohri; Thiele; Voss, Janice. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. Optimism in orbit and in Mission Control that Endeavour will have enough propellant and power to complete its planned mapping of more than 70 percent of the Earth's surface continues to increase. Mission Control also told the astronauts that the EarthKAM aboard Endeavour has successfully transmitted its 1,000th image for middle school students. Additional Details: here....

• STS-99 Mission Status Report #13 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Gorie; Kavandi; Kregel; Mohri; Thiele; Voss, Janice. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. Masses of data that will result in topographical maps far better than any now available continue to flow into high-rate recorders as Endeavour enters the second half of its Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Efforts to conserve propellant and power continue to pay off, with officials gaining more confidence that the entire nine days, nine hours of mapping operations will be completed. Additional Details: here....

• STS-99 Mission Status Report #16 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Hadfield; Kregel. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. Mission managers late this afternoon announced a nine-hour extension to the data-taking portion of the mission. That means that mapping of the Earth now will continue until about 6 a.m. Monday. Astronaut Chris Hadfield in Mission Control relayed the good news shortly before 4 p.m. to Commander Kevin Kregel and the rest of Endeavour's crew. "That's super news," Kregel replied. "I'm sure the folks at the Jet Propulsion Lab and NIMA are really ecstatic about that." Additional Details: here....

• STS-99 Mission Status Report #15 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Gorie; Kavandi; Kregel; Mohri; Thiele; Voss, Janice. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. With unprecedented detail of well over half of the world's terrain already safely stored aboard, Endeavour's crew continued mapping the Earth uninterrupted this morning, marching toward more than nine full days of radar observations thanks to successful fuel conservation measures. Additional Details: here....

• STS-99 Mission Status Report #17 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Gorie; Kavandi; Kregel; Mohri; Thiele; Voss, Janice. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. The EarthKAM, a digital camera mounted at an overhead window on Endeavour's flight deck, continues its record setting pace. A little after 4 a.m. CST Saturday flight controllers reported it had sent down more than 2,018 images, the combined total of the four previous flights on which it had flown. Additional Details: here....

• STS-99 Mission Status Report #18 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Kregel; Mohri; Thiele. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. Following yesterday's decision by mission managers to extend mapping operations, Endeavour's astronauts are set to continue collecting data until 5:44 a.m. Central time Monday. At that point preparations will begin to stow the 200-foot-long mast for the remainder of the mission. This 9-hour extension allows for almost 100 percent of the planned coverage of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Additional Details: here....

• STS-99 Mission Status Report #19 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Gorie; Kavandi; Kregel; Mohri; Ross; Thiele; Voss, Janice. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. Endeavour's astronauts are looking forward to using one more small bonus in mapping operations time. They were given an additional 10 minutes, bringing the total to nine days, 18 hours and 10 minutes. The additional minutes have been added to allow one more mapping pass across Australia, rather than turning off the radar just as the spacecraft approaches the nation's coastline. Additional Details: here....

• STS-99 Mission Status Report #22 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Gorie; Kavandi; Kregel; Mohri; Ross; Thiele; Voss, Janice. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. Summary: With mapping operations complete and Endeavour's radar mapping hardware stowed, astronauts today conducted checks of various flight control surfaces and thruster jets in preparation for tomorrow's return to Earth.. Additional Details: here....

• STS-99 Mission Status Report #24 - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Gorie; Kavandi; Kregel; Mohri; Ross; Thiele; Voss, Janice. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. Summary: The six astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour glided to a smooth landing at the Kennedy Space Center at sunset today, wrapping up their 11-day radar mapping mission, the first human space flight of the 21st century.. Additional Details: here....

• Landing of STS-99 - . Return Crew: Kregel; Gorie; Kavandi; Voss, Janice; Mohri; Thiele. Nation: USA. Related Persons: Kregel; Gorie; Kavandi; Voss, Janice; Mohri; Thiele. Program: STS. Flight: STS-99. Summary: STS-99 landed at 23:22 GMT. .