Michael Finneran
For release: May 2, 1996
(804) 864-6121
RELEASE NO. 96-032
NASA LANGLEY ENGINEER CHOSEN FOR ASTRONAUT TRAINING
NASA Langley engineer and Virginia Beach resident
Charles J. Camarda is among 35 people that have been chosen for
astronaut training.
Camarda will report to Johnson
Space Center in Houston on August 12 to begin a period of
training and evaluation as a mission specialist. After about a year
of training, he and the other astronauts will receive technical
assignments within the Astronaut Office to prepare them for shuttle
flight assignments.
Camarda is head of NASA Langley's Thermal Structures Branch,
whose work includes helping develop and test materials and
structures that would be used in the X-33
program, which is developing a next-generation spaceship called the
Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV).
The RLV program teams NASA and industry to produce a lower-cost,
quicker-turnaround space vehicle. An RLV would use a single
permanent "fuel tank" to fly into space and back without the need
for disposable solid-rocket boosters such as those on the space
shuttle.
Camarda was born in New York City on May 8, 1952, and earned a
bachelor of science degree in aerospace engineering from the
Polytechnic Institute of New York in 1974. He received a master's
degree in engineering science from George Washington University in
1980 and earned a doctorate in aerospace engineering from The
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1990.
This year's astronaut class includes 10 pilots and 25 mission
specialists candidates chosen from more than 2,400 applicants. The
group is the largest since the first class of space shuttle
astronauts, also totaling 35, was named in 1978.
Camarda is available for interviews by calling Michael
Finneran in the NASA Langley Office of Public Affairs at (757)
864-6121.
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