Timothy Lennart "Tim" Kopra (born April 9, 1963) is an engineer, a Colonel in the United States Army and a retired NASA

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

. He served aboard the International Space Station as a flight engineer for Expedition 20, returning to Earth aboard Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' on the STS-128 mission on September 11, 2009. He returned to the ISS for the second time in December 2015, as part of Expedition 46 and as the Commander of 47. In 2020, he was announced as the vice president of robotics and space operations at MDA Corporation.

Personal

Kopra was born in Austin, Texas. Kopra is married to Dawn Kaye Lehman of Lewisburg, Kentucky, and they have two children, Matthew and Jacqueline. His mother, Martha A. Witthoft Kopra, resides in Austin, Texas. His father, Dr. Lennart L. Kopra, died December 8, 1998. He is of Finnish descent on his father's side. His grandfather, Antti Kopra, born in Laavola, Valkjärvi,

Karelia Karelia ( Karelian and fi, Karjala, ; rus, Каре́лия, links=y, r=Karélija, p=kɐˈrʲelʲɪjə, historically ''Korjela''; sv, Karelen), the land of the Karelian people, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for ...

, and his grandmother, Ester Elisabet Saksinen, born in Helsinki, left Finland in 1914, immigrating to the United States. Kopra's father spoke Finnish, but Tim does not speak the language. On his mother's side, Kopra is of German descent. His German ancestors arrived in New York in the colonial period in the 1700s. These ancestors include Johann Philipp and Anna Catharina Finckel, who were members of the first group of Palatine Germans who settled in Germantown in the Hudson Valley in 1710.

Education

* 1981: Graduated from McCallum High School, Austin, Texas * 1985: Received a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York * 1995: Received a Master of Science degree in

aerospace engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

* 2006: Received a Master of Strategic Studies degree from the United States Army War College * 2013: Received a Master of Business Administration degree from the London Business School * 2013: Received a Master of Business Administration degree from the

Columbia Business School Columbia Business School (CBS) is the business school of Columbia University, a Private university, private research university in New York City. Established in 1916, Columbia Business School is one of six Ivy League business schools and is one ...

Organizations

* Society of Experimental Test Pilots * Army Aviation Association of America *

American Helicopter Society American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

*United States Military Academy Association of Graduates *West Point Society of Greater Houston * Phi Kappa Phi

Awards and honors

*Empire Test Pilot School Award for the best developmental test thesis, Class 110,

U.S. Naval Test Pilot School The United States Naval Test Pilot School (USNTPS), located at Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River in Patuxent River, Maryland, provides instruction to experienced United States Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force, and foreign military experi ...

(1996), *Silver and Bronze Order of Saint Michael, Army Aviation Award (2009, 1999), *Awarded the Bronze Star, two Meritorious Service Medals, Air Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, NASA Space Flight Medal,

NASA Distinguished Service Medal The NASA Distinguished Service Medal is the highest award that can be bestowed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States. The medal may be presented to any member of the federal government, including both milita ...

, and various other service awards.

Military career

Kopra received his commission as a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

from the U.S. Military Academy in May 1985 and was designated as an Army aviator in August 1986. He then completed a three-year assignment at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where he served as an aeroscout platoon leader, troop executive officer, and squadron adjutant in the

101st Airborne Division The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) ("Screaming Eagles") is a light infantry division of the United States Army that specializes in air assault operations. It can plan, coordinate, and execute multiple battalion-size air assault operati ...

's air cavalry squadron. In 1990, he was assigned to the 3rd Armored Division in Hanau, Germany, and was deployed to the Middle East in support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He completed his tour in Germany as an attack helicopter company commander and an operations officer. Kopra retired from the U.S. Army in November 2010.

NASA career

Kopra was assigned to NASA at the

Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late U ...

in September 1998 as a vehicle integration test engineer. In this position, he primarily served as an engineering liaison for Space Shuttle launch operations and International Space Station hardware testing. He was actively involved in the contractor tests of the Extravehicular Activity (EVA) interfaces for each of the space station truss segments. Selected as a mission specialist by NASA in July 2000, Kopra reported for Astronaut Candidate Training the following month. He then completed the initial two years of intensive Space Shuttle and ISS training, scientific and technical briefings, and

T-38 T38 or T-38 may refer to: * T38 (classification), a disability sport classification for disability athletics * T.38, a standard for fax over IP * T-38 tank, a Soviet light tank * Allison T38, a turboprop aircraft engine * Northrop T-38 Talon, a U.S ...

flight training. Kopra was also assigned technical duties in the Space Station Branch of the Astronaut Office, where his primary focus was the testing of crew interfaces for two future ISS modules as well as the implementation of support computers and operational Local Area Network on International Space Station. In September 2006, Kopra served as an

aquanaut An aquanaut is any person who remains underwater, breathing at the ambient pressure for long enough for the concentration of the inert components of the breathing gas dissolved in the body tissues to reach equilibrium, in a state known as satura ...

during the NEEMO 11 mission aboard the Aquarius underwater laboratory, living and working underwater for seven days.

Expedition 20

Kopra spent a little less than 60 days as a flight engineer of Expedition 20 on the ISS, arriving aboard the station aboard space shuttle ''Endeavour'' on the

STS-127 STS-127 ( ISS assembly flight 2J/A) was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS). It was the twenty-third flight of . The primary purpose of the STS-127 mission was to deliver and install the final two components of t ...

mission and returning to Earth aboard space shuttle ''Discovery'' on the STS-128 mission. He participated in the first spacewalk of the STS-127 mission. Kopra was assigned to fly on STS-133, the final flight of the ''Discovery''. He lost that assignment when he was injured in a bicycle accident, possibly breaking his hip. He was replaced by

Stephen G. Bowen Stephen Gerard "Steve" Bowen (born February 13, 1964) is a United States Navy submariner and a NASA astronaut; he was the second submariner to travel into space. Bowen has been on three spaceflights, all of which were Space Shuttle missions to ...

Expedition 46/47

ISS-47 Tim Kopra inside the cupola module

Kopra served as commander of the ISS, with Soyuz TMA-19M, as part of Expedition 46 /

Expedition 47 Expedition 47 was the 47th expedition to the International Space Station. Yuri Malenchenko, Timothy Peake and Timothy Kopra transferred from Expedition 46. Expedition 47 began upon the departure of Soyuz TMA-18M on 2 March 2016 and concluded upo ...

. During a spacewalk on January 15, 2016, Kopra's spacesuit began to leak water into his helmet causing the walk to be cut short. The suit he was using is the same suit that had developed a more serious water leak during a spacewalk by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano. Kopra returned to Earth on Soyuz TMA-19M, and landed 18 June 2016 09:15 UTC, after spending 186 days in space.

Awards

References

External links

*
Spacefacts biography of Timothy L. Kopra
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kopra, Timothy 1963 births Living people Aquanauts Columbia Business School alumni United States Army astronauts Commanders of the International Space Station NASA civilian astronauts Crew members of the International Space Station American people of Finnish descent American people of Karelian descent People from Austin, Texas United States Military Academy alumni Georgia Tech alumni United States Naval Test Pilot School alumni United States Army War College alumni United States Army colonels United States Army personnel of the Gulf War Recipients of the Air Medal Recipients of the NASA Distinguished Service Medal Space Shuttle program astronauts Spacewalkers Military personnel from Texas