APRIL 2005 ISSUE
Bjarni Tryggvason
ASTRONAUT LANDS FOR
AGM LUNCH
APEGGA Annual Conference goers will hear about the Canadian Space Program from one of our country's first astronauts. Bjarni Tryggvason is the Annual General Meeting lunch speaker, April 23.
In December 1983, Mr. Tryggvason was selected as one of the original six Canadian astronauts. On Aug. 7, 1997, he flew as a payload specialist aboard Space Shuttle Discovery. He later became part of the first group of astronauts trained as both NASA mission specialists for the space shuttle and potential crew members for the International Space Station.
Mr. Tryggvason's speech takes place at 12 noon in the Crystal Ballroom of the Fairmont Palliser Hotel in Calgary, April 23.
At NASA, Mr. Tryggvason served as a crew representative for the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory, which tests shuttle flight software prior to onboard use. He also supported integrated simulations on the space station training facility at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and served as a Canadian Space Agency representative on the NASA Microgravity Measurement Working Group and on the International Space Station Microgravity Analytic Integration Team.
Mr. Tryggvason continues to act as a technical consultant for the development of the Microgravity Vibration Isolation Subsystem, which the Canadian Space Agency is developing for use in the European Space Agency Fluid Science Laboratory on the space station and for the MIM-Base Unit, which the agency will install on the space station.
He is currently on sabbatical to work with private industry, promoting Planet Earth applications of space technology.