Happy birthday, astronaut Tim Kopra!

Timothy Kopra, born April 9, 1963 in Austin, Texas, has traveled twice into space. 

His first flight into space was aboard space shuttle Endeavour (STS-127) as mission specialist to the International Space Station in July 2009.  He remained aboard the ISS as part of Expedition 20 and returned to Earth on Discovery (STS-128) in September 2009.

His second and final flight was aboard Soyuz TMA-19M om December 2015.  He participated in Expeditions 46 and 47, returning to Earth in June 2016.

He spent 244 days in space, and conducted 3 EVAs.

In 2006, he participated as an aquanaut in the Aquarius underwater laboratory during the NEEMO 11 mission.

Happy birthday, British astronaut Tim Peake!

ESA astronaut Timothy Peake, born April 7, 1972 in Chichester, Sussex, England, went into space aboard Soyuz TMA-19M as flight engineer to the International Space Station in December 2015.  He participated in Expeditions 46 and 47.  He returned to Earth after almost 186 days in space in June 2016.

Soyuz TMA-18M launched 2015

Soyuz TMA-18M launch crew (L-R): Andreas Morgensen, Sergey Volkov, Aidyn Aimbetov

Mission patch

Soyuz TMA-18M, launched September 2, 2015 to the International Space Station, carried the first Danish astronaut Andreas Morgensen (ESA) and the first Kazakh cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov into space.  Its commander was cosmonaut Sergey Volkov (Roscosmos), who stayed aboard the ISS until March 2016 as part of Expedition 45.  Morgensen and Aimbetov returned about 10 days later on Soyuz TMA-16M.

He returned with Scott Kelly (NASA) and Mikhail Korniyenko (Roscosmos), members of Expedition 46.

Soyuz TMA-19M launched 2015

Soyuz TMA-19M crew (L-R): Timothy Kopra, Yuri Malenchenko, Timothy Peake

Mission patch

Soyuz TMA-19M, launched December 15, 2015, carried the members of Expedition 46 to the International Space Station.  Its crew consisted of Commander Yuri Malenchenko (Roscosmos), Timothy Kopra (NASA) and Timothy Peake (ESA)

They returned to Earth 186 days later in June 2016.