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Paul William Richards
NASA Astronaut (former)

PERSONAL DATA: Born May 20, 1964 in Scranton,
Pennsylvania. His hometown is Dunmore,
Pennsylvania. Enjoys running, cycling, golf,
sailing, snow skiing, cooking, and home
repair/improvement. Married to the former Susan
Geiger Palmer, of Flourtown, Pennsylvania. They
have four children. His parents are Angela Cordaro
Richards and the late James J. Richards. Her
parents are Samuel and Joan Geiger of Erdenheim,
Pennsylvania.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Dunmore High School,
Dunmore, Pennsylvania, in 1982; received a
bachelor of science degree in mechanical
engineering from Drexel University in 1987 and a
master of science degree in mechanical engineering
from the University of Maryland, College Park in
1991.

ORGANIZATIONS: American Society of Mechanical
Engineers, National Society of Professional
Engineers, American Institute for Aeronautics and
Astronautics, American Society of Naval Engineers,
United States Naval Reserves.

AWARDS: NASA Certificate of Recognition for Patent
Application (1996). Silver Snoopy Award (1994).
NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal (1994). Several
Goddard Honor Awards (1994). Several Group
Achievement Awards (1994). HST First Servicing
Mission Development Team. HST First Servicing
Mission Extravehicular Activity Team. HST First
Servicing Mission Crew Aids and Tools Development
Team. HST First Servicing Mission Integration and
Test Team. HST First Servicing Mission Space
Support Equipment Team. NASA Manned Flight
Awareness Award (1994). NASA Outstanding
Performance Awards (1992, 1994, 1995). Quality
Increase Award (1993). Certificate of Outstanding
Performance (1990, 1993, 1994). Group Achievement
Award UARS and GRO MMS and UASE Support Team
(1992). NASA Certificate of Recognition for
Invention Disclosure (1991). NASA Certificate of
Recognition for Technical Brief (1991).

EXPERIENCE: Department of the Navy, Naval Ship
Systems Engineering Station, 1983-1987.
Transferred to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
(GSFC) in 1987. Worked in the Verification Office,
Electromechanical Branch, Robotics Branch,
Guidance and Controls Branch, all within the
Engineering Directorate. Senior EVA Tool
Development Engineer for the Hubble Space
Telescope (HST) Servicing Project. Project Manager
for HST EVA crew aids and tools. Program Manager
for HST EVA Hardware. Responsibilities included
the budget, schedule, design, analysis,
fabrication, test, and integration for breadboard,
WETF/NBS, engineering, and flight hardware,
documentation, and review process. Additional
duties included systems engineering support for
the HST WETF/NBS Servicing Mission Simulations as
a utility diver and EMU suited subject.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected by NASA in April 1996,
Richards reported to the Johnson Space Center in
August 1996. Having completed two years of
training and evaluation, he is qualified for
flight assignment as a mission specialist.
Richards was initially assigned to the Computer
Branch working on software for the Space Shuttle
and the International Space Station. He next
served in the Astronaut Office Shuttle Operations
Branch assigned to support Payload and General
Support Computers (PGSCs) and the Shuttle Avionics
Integration Laboratory (SAIL). Richards flew on
STS-102 and has logged over 307 hours in space,
including 6.4 EVA hours. He was assigned as a
back-up crewmember for ISS Expedition-7. Richards
retired from NASA in February 2002 to pursue
private interests.

SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: STS-102 Discovery (March
8-21, 2001) was the eighth Shuttle mission to
visit the International Space Station. Mission
accomplishments included the delivery of the
Expedition-2 crew and the contents of the Leonardo
Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, the return to
earth of the Expedition-1 crew, as well as the
return of Leonardo, the reusable cargo carrier
built by the Italian Space Agency. Richards
performed an EVA totaling 6 hours and 21 minutes.
Mission duration was 307 hours and 49 minutes.

SEPTEMBER 2002

Source:
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/richardsp.ht
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