Lu

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Dr Edward Tsang Lu Status: Active. Trained as: Astronaut. Profession: Mission Specialist. Sex: Male. Marital Status: Single. Birth Date: 01 July 1963. Birth City: Springfield. Birth State: Massachusetts. Birth Country: USA. Nationality: American. Degree: PhD. Group: 1995 NASA Group. Date Selected: 09 December 1994. Number of Flights: 2. Total Time: 21.02 days. Number of EVAs: 1. Total EVA Time: 6.23 hours.

NASA Official Biography

NAME: Edward Tsang Lu (Ph.D.): NASA Astronaut
PERSONAL DATA:: Born July 1, 1963, in Springfield, Massachusetts. Considers Honolulu, Hawaii, and Webster, New York, to be his hometowns. Unmarried. He enjoys aerobatic flying, coaching wrestling, piano, tennis, surfing, skiing, travel. His parents, Charlie and Snowlily Lu, reside in Fremont, California.
EDUCATION:: Graduated from R.L. Thomas High School, Webster, New York, in 1980. Bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University, 1984. Doctorate in applied physics from Stanford University, 1989.
ORGANIZATIONS:: American Astronomical Society, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
SPECIAL HONORS:: Cornell University Presidential Scholar, Hughes Aircraft Company Masters Fellow.
EXPERIENCE:: Since obtaining his Ph.D., Dr. Lu has been a research physicist working in the fields of solar physics and astrophysics. He was a visiting scientist at the High Altitude Observatory in Boulder, Colorado, from 1989 until 1992, the final year holding a joint appointment with the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics at the University of Colorado. From 1992 until 1995, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Astronomy in Honolulu, Hawaii. Dr. Lu has developed a number of new theoretical advances which have provided for the first time a basic understanding of the underlying physics of solar flares. He has published articles on a wide range of topics including solar flares, cosmology, solar oscillations, statistical mechanics, and plasma physics. He has given over 20 invited lectures at various universities and international conferences. He holds a commercial pilot certificate with instrument and multi-engine ratings.
NASA EXPERIENCE:: Selected by NASA in December 1994, Dr. Lu reported to the Johnson Space Center in March 1995, has completed a year of training and evaluation, and is qualified for assignment as a mission specialist. He was initially assigned to work technical issues in the Computer Support Branch of the Astronaut Office. Most recently, he served as a mission specialist on STS-84 (May 15-24, 1997), NASA's sixth Shuttle mission to rendezvous and dock with the Russian Space Station Mir. In completing this 9-day mission, Dr.Lu traveled 3.6 million miles in 144 orbits of the Earth logging a total of 221 hours and 20 minutes in space.

MAY 1997

Flight Log

STS-84 - - 1997 May 15 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 9.22 days. Flight details: STS-84.
Atlantis blasted off on a night launch to Mir, docking with the station on May 17 at 02:33 GMT. Jerry Linenger, who had begun his stay on Mir in mid-January aboard STS-81, would return aboard STS-84. Michael Foale would be left at the station for his stint as the American crew member of Mir. The crew transfered to Mir 466 kg of water, 383 kg of U.S. science equipment, 1,251 kg of Russian equipment and supplies, and 178 kg of miscellaneous material. Returned to Earth aboard Atlantis were 406 kg of U.S. science material, 531 kg of Russian logistics material, 14 kg of ESA material and 171 kg of miscellaneous material. Atlantis undocked from Mir at 01:04 GMT on May 22. After passing up its first landing opportunity due to clouds over the landing site, the Shuttle fired its OMS engines on the deorbit burn at 12:33 GMT on May 24. Atlantis landed at 13:27 GMT at Kennedy Space Center's runway 33.
STS-106 - - 2000 Sep 8 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 11.80 days. Flight details: STS-106.
Atlantis was launched from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39B. Solid rocket boosters RSRM-75 and external tank ET-103 were used to loft the orbiter into space. The inital orbit of 72 x 328 km x 51.6 deg was circularised by the Shuttle's OMS engines at apogee.
Atlantis docked with the PMA-2 adapter on the International Space Station at 05:51 GMT on September 10. The orbiter's small RCS engines were used to gently reboost the station's orbit several times.
Astronauts Lu and Malenchenko made a spacewalk on September 11 beginning at 04:47 GMT. They rode the RMS arm up to Zvezda and began installing cables, reaching a distance of 30 meters from the airlock when installing Zvezda's magnetometer. Total EVA duration was 6 hours 21 minutes.
During their 12-day flight, the astronauts spent a week docked to the International Space Station during which they worked as movers, cleaners, plumbers, electricians and cable installers. In all, they spent 7 days, 21 hours and 54 minutes docked to the International Space Station, outfitting the new Zvezda module for the arrival of the Expedition One crew later this fall.
The Shuttle undocked from ISS at 03:44 GMT on September 18 and made two circuits of the station each lasting half an orbit, before separating finally at 05:34 GMT. The payload bay doors were closed at 04:14 GMT on September 20 and at 06:50 GMT the OMS engines ignited for a three minute burn lowering the orbit from 374 x 386 km x 51.6 deg to 22 x 380 km x 51.6 deg. After entry interface at 07:25 GMT, the orbiter glided to a landing on runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center with main gear touchdown at 07:56:48 GMT for a mission duration of 283 hr 11min.
EVA STS-106-1 - - 2000 Sep 10 - Assignment: EVA Crew. EVA Duration: 6.23 hours.
Astronauts Lu and Malenchenko made a spacewalk on September 11 beginning at 04:47 GMT. They rode the RMS arm up to Zvezda and began installing cables, reaching a distance of 30 meters from the airlock when installing Zvezda's magnetometer.

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Last update 3 May 2001.
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