On Dec. 10, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced the list of names of 18 astronauts who will take part in the Artemis moon-landing program. US Vice President Mike Pence, who is also chairman of the National Space Council, introduced the 18 astronauts at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The astronauts, half of whom are women, will soon commence training for the Artemis moon-landing program.
One of them is 47-year-old male astronaut Kjell Lindgren, who was born in Taipei on Jan. 23, 1973 to a Taiwanese mother and a Swedish father. He emigrated with his family to the Midwestern US but spent most of his childhood in the UK. After graduating from senior high school, he was admitted to the US Air Force Academy, where he majored in biology with a minor in Chinese and received a bachelor of science degree in 1995. He gained a master of science degree from Colorado State University in 1996 and a doctorate of medicine from the University of Colorado in 2002. In 2007 he received a master of public health from the University of Texas Medical Branch, where he completed his residency in aerospace medicine the following year.
Lindgren was chosen to be a NASA astronaut in 2009 and served as a flight surgeon for the STS-130 space shuttle mission. He joined the Expedition 44/45 mission on July 22, 2015 and stayed on the International Space Station for 141 days before returning to Earth on Dec. 11 of the same year. He is the first astronaut to have been born in Taiwan.
Photo: NASA 照片: 美國太空總署
Two other NASA astronauts with connections to Taiwan are Taylor Wang and Leroy Chiao.
Wang was born in Jiangxi Province, China in 1940. In 1952 he moved with his parents to Taiwan, where he attended the Refresher Substitute Elementary School (today’s Jhong-Jheng Elementary School), followed by senior high school studies at the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, after which he moved to Hong Kong. He completed a seven-day space flight on the Challenger space shuttle from April 29 to May 6, 1985.
Chiao is a Chinese American engineer and former astronaut. While working for NASA, he lived on board the International Space Station for six months. His father, Chiao Tsu-tao, was born in Shandong Province, China and graduated from the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University and Cheng Kung University’s Department of Chemical Engineering. His mother, Cherry Chiao, was born in Qingdao City in Shandong. They married in Taiwan and moved to the US in the 1950s, and Leroy was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Photo: NASA 照片: 美國太空總署
(Translated by Julian Clegg, Taipei Times)
美國國家航空暨太空總署十二月十日公布「阿提米絲」登月計畫的十八名太空人名單。兼任國家太空委員會主席的美國副總統麥克·彭斯在佛羅里達州甘迺迪太空中心介紹十八名太空人，當中半數為女性。他們將為「阿提米絲」計畫展開訓練。
其中一名四十七歲的男性太空人林其兒，於一九七三年一月二十三日出生於台北市，其母親為台灣人、父親為瑞典人，隨家人遷居美國中西部，大部分的童年時光則在英國度過。他高中畢業後考進美國空軍學院，主修生物、副修中文，一九九五年取得學士學位。一九九六年取得科羅拉多州立大學碩士學位，二○○二年又獲得科羅拉多大學醫學士學位。二○○七年取得德州大學醫學分部公共衛生碩士學位，翌年完成太空醫學住院醫師訓練。
Photo: NASA 照片: 美國太空總署
林其兒在二○○九年入選為太空總署太空人，曾任「STS-130」太空梭任務航空軍醫；二○一五年七月二十二日，參與遠征「44/45」任務，在國際太空站待了一百四十一天，同年十二月十一日回到地球，是史上首位在台灣出生的太空人。
與台灣相關的太空總署太空人還有王贛駿與焦立中。
王贛駿一九四○年出生於中國江西省，一九五二年隨父母到台灣，在高雄讀進修代用國小（今中正國小），高中就讀於台北師大附中，後移居香港。他一九八五年四月二十九日至五月六日乘坐挑戰者號太空梭進行了為期七天的太空飛行。
焦立中為美籍華裔工程師、前太空人，於太空總署服役期間曾駐守國際太空站六個月，他的父親焦祖韜博士出生在中國山東省，畢業於台灣師大附中、成功大學化工系；其母朱青筠博士出生於山東青島市，兩人在台灣結婚，一九五○年代移居美國，在美國威斯康辛州密爾沃基市生下焦立中。
(自由時報)
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