James R. Kass is a Canadian physicist engaged in the field of human spaceflight.
James R. Kass is a Canadian physicist engaged in the field of human spaceflight.
Kass holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in physics and mathematics (Montreal) and a Master of Science (MS) in physics (Ann Arbor, Michigan), and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in physics in Leeds, England. [1]
After he completed his PhD Dr Kass joined the Max-Planck Institute to research in Nuclear Physics. Starting a career of more than 30 years in human spaceflight, [2] he worked as a scientist at the department of medicine at Joh.-Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, where he researched in Neurophysiology and space medicine, particularly in the area of sensory perception. This work was carried out in conjunction with two Spacelab missions, Spacelab-1 and Spacelab-D1.
Kass started his circuitous route to human spaceflight at the height of the Space Age in 1962, when he registered at Sir George Williams University in Montreal attempting to commence studies in this domain. [3] In the absence of a university program on space flight, he studied physics and mathematics, and proceeded to become a research fellow in nuclear physics. But, as fate would have it, he finally fulfilled his dream, when some 20 years later he sat at the Johnson Spaceflight Centre (JSC) in Houston and directed the astronaut crew Ulf Merbold, Byron Lichtenberg, Robert Parker, and Skylab veteran Owen Garriott, to perform experiments in the domain of vestibular physiology prepared by a team of European investigators, of which he was one. [4]
Following this he worked for the aerospace industry in Bremen and Munich in the sectors of space operations, tele-medical research, artificial intelligence, and human behaviour, performing work in neutral buoyancy, in parabolic flight, with the Mir station and with long-duration isolation missions. He was recruited to work for the European Space Agency (ESA) at their establishment in The Netherlands, ESTEC as senior scientist in 2000 where he worked on the STS-107 Spacehab/Space Shuttle mission. He has worked in the psychology of long-duration spaceflight, lecturing at University College London (UCL) (England) and Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada).
He has worked in the fields of telemedicine and eHealth, being a member of the Telemedicine Alliance project, where he contributed to Data Privacy, [5] [6] and eSurveillance. [7] [8] He is an adviser on the Mars One project, on which he was co-editor of a book on this subject. [9] He currently runs a space consultancy, and has advised the European Commission in the domain of knowledge mgmt, carried out training in the domain of sharing knowledge and lessons learned, and arranges collaborative efforts between the European Space Agency Business Applications program and industry. [10] In the domain of Lessons Learned, he has been an invited speaker [11] at the European Commission and interviewed [12] on this subject.
STS-51-F was the 19th flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the eighth flight of Space Shuttle Challenger. It launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 29 July 1985, and landed just under eight days later on 6 August 1985.
The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organisation of 22 member states dedicated to the exploration of space. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, ESA has a worldwide staff of about 2,200 in 2018 and an annual budget of about €7.2 billion in 2022.
Spacelab was a reusable laboratory developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory comprised multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier, and other related hardware housed in the Shuttle's cargo bay. The components were arranged in various configurations to meet the needs of each spaceflight.
STS-9 was the ninth NASA Space Shuttle mission and the sixth mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Launched on 28 November 1983, the ten-day mission carried the first Spacelab laboratory module into orbit.
Ulf Dietrich Merbold is a German physicist and astronaut who flew to space three times, becoming the first West German citizen in space and the first non-American to fly on a NASA spacecraft. He flew on two Space Shuttle missions and on a Russian mission to the space station Mir, spending a total of 49 days in space.
STS-51B was the 17th flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program, and the seventh flight of Space Shuttle Challenger. The launch of Challenger on April 29, 1985 was delayed by 2 minutes and 18 seconds, due to a launch processing failure. Challenger was initially rolled out to the pad to launch on the STS-51E mission. The shuttle was rolled back when a timing issue emerged with the TDRS-B satellite. When STS-51E was canceled, Challenger was remanifested with the STS-51B payloads. The shuttle landed successfully on May 6, 1985, after a week-long mission.
STS-61-A was the 22nd mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program. It was a scientific Spacelab mission, funded and directed by West Germany – hence the non-NASA designation of D-1. STS-61-A was the ninth and last successful flight of Space Shuttle Challenger. STS-61-A holds the current record for the largest crew - eight people - aboard any single spacecraft for the entire period from launch to landing.
STS-55, or Deutschland 2 (D-2), was the 55th overall flight of the NASA Space Shuttle and the 14th flight of Shuttle Columbia. This flight was a multinational Spacelab flight involving 88 experiments from eleven different nations. The experiments ranged from biology sciences to simple Earth observations.
STS-90 was a 1998 Space Shuttle mission flown by the Space Shuttle Columbia. The 16-day mission marked the last flight of the European Space Agency's Spacelab laboratory module, which had first flown on Columbia on STS-9, and was also the last daytime landing for Columbia.
Wubbo Johannes Ockels was a Dutch physicist and an astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA). In 1985 he participated in a flight on the Space Shuttle Challenger, STS-61-A, making him the first Dutch citizen in space. After his astronaut career, Ockels was professor of Aerospace for Sustainable Engineering and Technology at the Delft University of Technology.
Dirk Dries David Damiaan, Viscount Frimout is an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency. He flew aboard NASA Space Shuttle mission STS-45 as a payload specialist, making him the first Belgian in space.
Franco Egidio Malerba is an Italian astronaut. He was the first citizen of Italy to travel to space.
Gerhard Paul Julius Thiele is a German physicist and a former ESA astronaut. He is the father of Die Astronautin candidate Insa Thiele-Eich.
The Aurora programme is a human spaceflight programme of the European Space Agency (ESA) established in 2001. The objective is to formulate and then to implement a European long-term plan for exploration of the Solar System using robotic spacecraft and human spaceflight to investigate bodies holding promise for traces of life beyond the Earth.
The European Astronaut Corps is a unit of the European Space Agency (ESA) that selects, trains, and provides astronauts as crew members on U.S. and Russian space missions. The corps has 13 active members, able to serve on the International Space Station (ISS). The European Astronaut Corps is based at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. They can be assigned to various projects both in Europe or elsewhere in the world, at NASA Johnson Space Center or Star City.
Alexander Gerst is a German European Space Agency astronaut and geophysicist, who was selected in 2009 to take part in space training. He was part of the International Space Station Expedition 40 and 41 from May to November 2014. Gerst returned to space on 6 June 2018, as part of Expedition 56/57. He was the Commander of the International Space Station. He returned to Earth on 20 December 2018. After the end of his second mission and before being surpassed by Luca Parmitano in 2020, he held the record for most time in space of any active ESA astronaut, succeeding Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli, and German ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, who formally held the record for the longest time in space for any active or retired ESA astronaut.
ELIPS - European Programme for Life and Physical Sciences in Space and applications utilising the International Space Station started in 2001 and was intended to cover the activities for the following 5 years. This Microgravity Programme at the European Space Agency (ESA) is an optional programme, with currently 17 ESA member states participating. The ELIPS programme prepares and performs research on the International Space Station, and other unmanned mission platforms like Sounding Rockets, in fundamental and applied life and physical sciences. ELIPS is the continuation of the earlier European microgravity programmes EMIR 1&2, and the Microgravity Facilities for Columbus, MFC.
Vladimir Pletser is Visiting Professor – Scientific Adviser at the Technology and Engineering Centre for Space Utilization (CSU) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China, since April 2016. He supports the preparation of scientific experiments in microgravity for the future Chinese Space Station and for aircraft parabolic flights. He worked previously from 1985 till early 2016 as senior Physicist-Engineer at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) of ESA.
Raye Kass is a professor in the Department of Applied Human Sciences at Concordia University in Montreal. She is the author of Theories of Small Group Development and the co-author of three other works on social group theory. She has also been invited to be involved in space research projects.