After completing his BS, Don Pettit went to graduate school at the University of Arizona and received a PhD degree in Chemical Engineering in 1983. After working 12 years as a staff scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, he was selected by NASA to its astronaut program in April 1996. Dr. Pettit reported to the Johnson Space Center as a scientist astronaut in August 1996. Having completed two years of training and evaluation for space flight in the US Space Shuttle, Russian Soyuz, and International Space Station, he is qualified for flight selection as a mission specialist. Currently, Dr. Pettit is assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office Computer Support Branch, awaiting a flight. He has served as a member for General Thomas Stafford's Presidential Commission to assemble the technology for the Space Exploration Initiative.
Degrees
- B.S. Chemical Engineering, 1978