Holiday Gathering and Astronaut Dr Michael Barratt
Our traditional holiday meeting will once again be in a modified format. We will begin with a few remarks from our club president followed by a retrospective on another busy and productive year in astronomy and space exploration from OMSI Director of Space Science Education Jim Todd. Afterwards, NASA Astronaut Dr Michael Barratt will give a presentation and then answer questions.
About Astronaut Dr Michael Barratt
Astronaut Dr. Michael Barratt grew up in Camas, Washington. He is a graduate of Camas High School and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with his Bachelor of Science Degree in Zoology from the University of Washington. He received his medical training at Northwestern University and a Masters Degree in Aerospace Medicine at Wright State University. He is Board Certified in Internal and Aerospace Medicine.
Before being selected as an astronaut, Dr Barratt held several medical positions at NASA. He worked on medical systems for Space Station Freedom, was a Flight Surgeon for Space Shuttle Medical Operations, supported missions in the joint U.S./Russian Shuttle – Mir Program, served as Medical Operations Lead for the International Space Station (ISS), and was the lead crew surgeon for the first expedition crew to the ISS. In these roles, he worked and trained at the Gargarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia and collaborated with colleagues at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow.
NASA chose Dr Barratt as an Astronaut in 2000. He was a Flight Engineer for Expedition 19/20 to the ISS, flying on a Soyuz TMA-14 rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on March 26th, 2009. During the mission, he performed two spacewalks supporting station construction and conducted onboard experiments. On this mission, he was in space for 199 days and returned to Earth on October 11, 2009. In February 2011, he returned to the ISS as a Mission Specialist for STS-133, which was the last flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery. On this mission, he was the Lead for Rendezvous and Station Robotics. He returned to Earth 13 days later, on March 9.
After completing his missions in space, Dr Barratt served as the Manager of the Human Research Program at the NASA Johnson Space Center, has supported scientific research and helped address medical issues on the ISS, and has worked on human and medical factors associated with space vehicles in the Commercial Crew and Artemis Programs. He is currently involved in research toward understanding and mitigating the health risks of a human mission to Mars.
Dr Barratt is the recipient of numerous awards. He is also the Associate Editor for Space Medicine for the journal Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance and is a senior editor of the book “Principles of Clinical Medicine for Space Flight”.