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astronautix.com Parazynski
Dr Scott Edward Parazynski Status: Active. Trained as: Astronaut. Profession: Mission Specialist. Sex: Male. Marital Status: Married. Children: One. Birth Date: 28 July 1961. Birth City: Little Rock. Birth State: Arkansas. Birth Country: USA. Nationality: American. Degree: MD. Group: 1992 NASA Group. Date Selected: 31 March 1992. Number of Flights: 3. Total Time: 30.65 days. Number of EVAs: 1. Total EVA Time: 5.02 hours.

NASA Official Biography

NAME: Scott E. Parazynski (M.D.)
NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:
Born July 28, 1961, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Considers Palo Alto, California, and Evergreen, Colorado, to be his hometowns. Married to the former Gail Marie Vozzella. They have one son. He enjoys mountaineering, rock climbing, flying, scuba diving, skiing, travel, and nature photography.

EDUCATION:
Attended junior high school in Dakar, Senegal, and Beirut, Lebanon. Attended high school at the Tehran American School, Iran, and the American Community School, Athens, Greece, graduating in 1979. He received a bachelor of science degree in biology from Stanford University in 1983, continuing on to graduate with honors from Stanford Medical School in 1989. He served his medical internship at the Brigham and Women's Hospital of Harvard Medical School (1990). He then completed 22 months of a residency in emergency medicine in Denver, Colorado, when selected to the astronaut program.

ORGANIZATIONS:
Member of the Aerospace Medical Association, the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology, the Wilderness Medical Society, the American Alpine Club, and the Association of Space Explorers.

SPECIAL HONORS:
National Institutes of Health Predoctoral Training Award in Cancer Biology (1983). Rhodes Scholarship finalist (1984). NASA Graduate Student Researcher's Award (1988). Stanford Medical Scholars Program (1988). Research Honors Award from Stanford Medical School (1989). NASA-Ames Certificate of Recognition (1990). Wilderness Medical Society Research Award (1991). NASA Space Flight Medal (1994).

While in medical school he competed on the United States Development Luge Team and was ranked in the top 10 in the nation during the 1988 Olympic Trials. He also served as an Olympic Team Coach for the Philippines during the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary, Canada.

EXPERIENCE:
While an undergraduate at Stanford University, Dr. Parazynski studied antigenic variation in African Sleeping Sickness, using sophisticated molecular biological techniques. While in medical school, he was awarded a NASA Graduate Student Fellowship and conducted research on fluid shifts that occur during human space flight. Additionally, he has been involved in the design of several exercise devices that are being developed for long-duration space flight, and has conducted research on high-altitude acclimatization. Dr. Parazynski has numerous publications in the field of space physiology, and has a particular expertise in human adaptation to stressful environments.

NASA EXPERIENCE:
Selected by NASA in March 1992, Dr. Parazynski reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1992. He completed one year of training and evaluation, and qualified for assignment as a mission specialist on future Space Shuttle flight crews. Dr. Parazynski initially served as one of the crew representatives for extravehicular activity in the Astronaut Office Mission Development Branch. He first flew in 1994 on STS-66 and has logged over 262 hours in space. He was then assigned as a backup for the third American long-duration stay aboard Russia's Space Station Mir, and was expected to serve as a prime crew member on a subsequent mission. He spent 5 months in training at the Gargarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Star City, Russia. In October 1995, when sitting-height parameters raised concerns about his fitting safely in the Soyuz vehicle in the event of an emergency on-board the Mir station, he was deemed too tall for the mission and was withdrawn from Mir training. He presently serves as the Astronaut Office Operations Planning Branch crew representative for Space Shuttle, Space Station and Soyuz training, and is assigned to the crew of STS-86.

CURRENT ASSIGNMENT:
Dr. Parazynski will serve as Mission Specialist-2 (Flight Engineer) on STS-86, NASA's seventh scheduled Shuttle mission to rendezvous and dock with the Russian Space Station Mir. While docked, he and Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Titov will perform a 5-1/2 hour EVA to retrieve experiments first deployed on Mir during the STS-76 docking mission. Launch is scheduled for September 1997.

JANUARY 1997

Flight Log

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Last update 3 May 2001.
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