Neri Vela Credit - www.spacefacts.de

Personal: Male. Born in Chilpancingo, Mexico.

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: Payload Specialist. Inactive Entered space service: July 1985. Left space service: 3 December 1985. Number of Flights: 1.00. Total Time: 6.88 days.

NAME: Rodolfo Neri Vela

EDUCATION: Diploma in electronic/mechanical engineering, with specialisation in communications technology, from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM. Doctorates in Telecommunications and Electromagnetic Radiation from the Universities of Essex and Birmingham.

EXPERIENCE: Neri worked in Mexico as an engineer, director of projects, adviser and Professor of Radio Communications in the Institute of Electrical Investigations, the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation, the Secretariat of the National Defence, the UNAM, and several museums of science and technology.

Neri Vela went into space as Mexico’s first astronaut on NASA / European Space Agency mission STS-61-B. He spent seven days in outer space aboard the space shuttle Atlantis, carrying out multiple experiments and placing in orbit the Mexican satellite Morelos 2.

From 1989 to 1990 Neri worked on the International Space Station for the European Space Agency in Holland.

Later Neri Vela was Professor in the Faculty of Engineering of the UNAM. He was also a lecturer and instructor of intensive courses on satellites and astronautics in various institutions of higher education in different parts of the world and participated in many national and international congresses.

Neri Vela has published a many articles and ten books, the most recent of which were Satélites de Comunicaciones (Communications Satellites), Estaciones Espaciales Habitadas (Inhabited Space Stations), El Universo del Hombre y su Sistema Solar (Man’s Universe and Solar System), and Vuelta al Mundo en Noventa Minutos (Around the World in Ninety Minutes).

• 27 November 1985 Flight: STS-61-B. Flight Up: STS-61-B. Flight Back: STS-61-B. Flight Time: 6.88 days.

27 November 1985 - STS-61-B. Manned seven crew. Deployed Morelos 2, Aussat 2, Satcom K2, OEX. Payloads: Deploy SATCOM (RCA-Satellite Communi-cations) Ku-2 with Payload Assist Module (PAM)-D II. Deploy Morelos (Mexico communications satellite)-B with PAM-D. Deploy AUSSAT (Australian communications satellite)-2 with PAM-D. EASE/ACCESS (Assembly of Structures— Assembly Concept for Construction of Erectable Space Structures) by extravehicular activity (EVA) astronauts, Continuous Flow Electrophore-sis System (CFES), Diffusive Mixing of Organic Solutions (DMOS), IMAX camera, one getaway special (GAS), Linhof camera and Hasseblad camera.