Chat Information: Live online chat about spaceflight with astronaut C. Michael Foale Date: Tuesday, December 6, 2005 Time: 8:10 - 8:50 AM Alaska Time 9:10 - 9:50 AM Pacific Time 10:10 - 10:50 AM Mountain Time 11:10 - 11:50 AM Central Time 12:10 - 12:50 PM Eastern Time

About Dr. C. Michael Foale:
Dr. C. Michael Foale is the U.S. record holder for most cumulative time in space having logged 374 days, 11 hours and 19 minutes in space. He accomplished this milestone after his last flight, serving as Expedition-8 Commander during a stay on the International Space Station from October 18, 2003 to April 29, 2004. His six-month tour of duty aboard the ISS included one 3 hour, 55 minute space walk.

Foale is a veteran of five other space missions and three other space walks: STS-45 (March 24 to April 2, 1992), the first of the ATLAS series of missions to study the atmosphere and solar interactions; STS-56 (April 9-17, 1993) , which carried ATLAS-2 and the SPARTAN retrievable satellite that made observations of the solar corona; STS-63 (February 2-11, 1995), the first rendezvous with the Russian Space Station Mir, which included a 4 hour, 39 minute space walk; a four-and-a-half month stay aboard the Russian Space Station Mir, during which he conducted science experiments, helped reestablish Mir after it experienced a collision and depressurization, and performed a space walk; and STS-103 (December 19-27, 1999), which repaired and upgraded systems on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). During an 8 hour and 10 minute space walk, Foale helped replace the telescope's main computer and Fine Guidance Sensor.

Foale was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in June 1987. He received a B.A. in Physics, Natural Sciences Tripos, with first class honors from the University of Cambridge - Queens' College. He completed his doctorate in Laboratory Astrophysics at Cambridge University in 1982.