Mission Specialist

A Mission Specialist (MS) is a position held by certain NASA astronauts. A Mission Specialist is assigned to a limited field of the mission, such as for medical experiments or technical quests.

Other functions on board were Pilot, Flight Engineer and Mission Commander. Some Space Shuttle missions included Payload Specialists in addition to Mission Specialists. While a Payload Specialist was selected for a single specific mission, a Mission Specialist was selected as an astronaut first, and then assigned to a mission.

Mission Specialist is abbreviated by NASA as MS.

Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft of which it was the only item funded for development. The first of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights beginning in 1982. They were used on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011, launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Operational missions launched numerous satellites, interplanetary probes, and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST); conducted science experiments in orbit; and participated in construction and servicing of the International Space Station. The Shuttle fleet's total mission time was 1322 days, 19 hours, 21 minutes and 23 seconds.

Shuttle components included the Orbiter Vehicle (OV), a pair of recoverable solid rocket boosters (SRBs), and the expendable external tank (ET) containing liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The Shuttle was launched vertically, like a conventional rocket, with the two SRBs operating in parallel with the OV's three main engines, which were fueled from the ET. The SRBs were jettisoned before the vehicle reached orbit, and the ET was jettisoned just before orbit insertion, which used the orbiter's two Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engines. At the conclusion of the mission, the orbiter fired its OMS to de-orbit and re-enter the atmosphere. The orbiter then glided as a spaceplane to a runway landing, usually at the Shuttle Landing Facility of KSC or Rogers Dry Lake in Edwards Air Force Base, California. After landing at Edwards, the orbiter was flown back to the KSC on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a specially modified Boeing 747.

Thomas D

Thomas D. (born Thomas Dürr, 30 December 1968 in Ditzingen, near Stuttgart, Germany) is a rapper in the German hip hop group Die Fantastischen Vier. He frequently works on solo projects.

Life

After finishing Realschule he took on an apprenticeship as a barber. Because he frequently worked as a caretaker (German: Hausmeister), he gave himself the stage name "Hausmeister Thomas D."

He has been vegan for several years and supports the animal welfare organization PETA. In 2003, he was criticised for his approval of their exhibition Holocaust on Your Plate, which compared keeping animals in mass stocks to the crimes of the Holocaust.

He sees himself as a member of the Lohas ("Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability") movement and is fond of green ecologial initiatives. On stage he often wears T-Shirts from Fairtrade Label armedangels, all of his Merchandise items are fair traded as well.

Thomas D. is married, has one daughter and one son.

Work

Thomas D. is a member of Die Fantastischen Vier, but was also successful with his solo albums Solo (1997), Lektionen in Demut (2001), and Kennzeichen D (2008). Singles released from these albums include Rückenwind, Frisör, Liebesbrief, and Solo (featuring Nina Hagen). Outside Germany, he is probably best known for "Wish (Komm zu mir)" which he performed with Franka Potente on the soundtrack of the movie Run Lola Run.

Thomas Akers

Thomas Dale Akers (born May 20, 1951) is an American former astronaut in NASA's Space Shuttle program.

Education

Akers was the valedictorian of his 29-member 1969 senior class from Eminence, Missouri. He worked summers as a park ranger in the 80,000 acre federal wilderness that borders Eminence. He graduated from the University of Missouri-Rolla [now the Missouri University of Science and Technology] with B.S. and M.S. degrees in Applied Mathematics in 1973 and 1975, respectively. At the age of 24 he returned to Eminence to become its high school principal. In 1979, when a United States Air Force recruiter left brochures on his desk for his students, it was Akers who decided to sign up. He was selected for the astronaut program in 1987 and officially became an astronaut in 1988.

NASA career

Akers is a veteran of four shuttle flights in which he spent over 800 hours in orbit, including more than 29 hours of extra-vehicular activity (EVA) experience. In each of his flights, his role was as a mission specialist. His first space flight was in 1990 on STS-41, the 11th flight of Space Shuttle Discovery. He was instrumental in deploying the European Space Agency satellite Ulysses, a solar-exploration craft, as well as tending several secondary payloads and experiments.

Get Smart

Get Smart was an American comedy television series that satirized the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams (as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86), Barbara Feldon (as Agent 99), and Edward Platt (as Thaddeus, the Chief). Henry said they created the show by request of Daniel Melnick, who was a partner, along with Leonard Stern and David Susskind, of the show's production company, Talent Associates, to capitalize on "the two biggest things in the entertainment world today"—James Bond and Inspector Clouseau. Brooks said: "It's an insane combination of James Bond and Mel Brooks comedy."

The success of the show (which ran from September 18, 1965, to September 11, 1970) eventually spawned the follow-up films The Nude Bomb (a theatrical release) and Get Smart, Again! (a made-for-TV sequel to the series), as well as a 1995 revival series, and a 2008 film remake. In 2010, TV Guide ranked Get Smart's opening title sequence at No. 2 on its list of TV's Top 10 Credits Sequences as selected by readers.