Dirk D Frimout (Ph.D.) (*March 21, 1941 in Poperinge Belgium) is a Payload Specialist.

Personal Data

He is married. Two children. Hobbies include running, bicycling, walking, traveling, and chess.

Education

Elementary School at Poperinge. Secondary School at Atheneum at Ghent, Belgium. Received degree of electrotechnical engineer at State University of Ghent in 1963; a doctorate in applied physics from University of Ghent in 1970; post-doctorate at University of Colorado, Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics (ESRO fellow) in 1971-1972.

Organizations

Associate member of Belgian National Council for Space Research. Member of KVIV (Royal Association of Flemish Engineers). Association of Engineers from University of Ghent.

Publications

More than 30 publications relating to Atmospheric Physics Experiments, Crew Training for Spacelab, and Microgravity Experiments.

Special Honors

1971-72 Postdoctoral Research Fellow from ESRO (European Space Research Organization).

Experience

• 1965-78 Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy. As Head of Section Instrumentation, performed experiments with stratospheric balloons and sounding rockets.

• 1978-84 European Space Agency (ESA) as Crew Activities Coordinator and Experiment Coordinator for Spacelab-1.

• 1984-89 Microgracity Division of ESTEC, responsible for sounding rocket program, parabolic flights, experiments on EURECA, reflight of Spacelab-1 experiments.

Currently, Dr. Frimout is an ESA staff member. He is a senior engineer in the Payload Utilization Department of the Columbus Directorate, responsible for the ESA support to the European experiments on Atlas-1, and the Microgravity Measurement Assembly to be flown on D2.

Space Flight Experience

Dr. Frimout flew as a payload specialist on STS-45 Atlantis (March 24 to April 2, 1992). STS-45 was launched from and returned to land at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. It was the first Spacelab mission dedicated to NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. During the nine-day flight, the crew aboard Atlantis operated the twelve experiments that constituted the ATLAS-1 (Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science) cargo. ATLAS-1 obtained a vast array of detailed measurements of atmospheric chemical and physical properties, which contributed significantly to improving our understanding of our climate and atmosphere. In addition, this was the first time an artificial beam of electrons was used to stimulate a man-made auroral discharge. At mission conclusion, Dr. Frimout had traveled 3.2 million miles in 143 Earth orbits and logged over 214 hours in space.

Source: [1] (http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/frimout-d.html)

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