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Daniel Tani Biography |
Daniel M. Tani, former NASA astronaut, was born February 1, 1961 in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, but considers Lombard, Illinois, to be his hometown. He is married to the former Jane Egan from Cork, Ireland. He enjoys golf, flying, running, tennis, music, cooking. His mother, Rose Tani, resides in Lombard, Illinois. His father, Henry N. Tani, is deceased.
Education
Graduated from Glenbard East High School, Lombard, Illinois, in 1979; received a bachelor and a master of science degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984 and 1988, respectively.
Organizations
Member, Japanese American Citizens League, Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
Awards
Orbital Sciences Corporation Outstanding Technical Achievement Award, 1993.
Experience
After Tani received his bachelor's degree from MIT, he worked at Hughes Aircraft Corporation in El Segundo, California as a design engineer in the Space and Communications group. In 1986, he returned to MIT and received his master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1988, specializing in human factors and group decision making. After graduation, Tani worked for Bolt Beranek and Newman in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the experimental psychology department. In 1988, Tani joined Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) in Dulles, Virginia, initially as a senior structures engineer, and then as the mission operations manager for the Transfer Orbit Stage (TOS). In that role, he served as the TOS flight operations lead, working with NASA/JSC mission control in support of the deployment of the ACTS/TOS payload during the STS-51 mission in September 1993. Tani then moved to the Pegasus program at OSC as the launch operations manager. In that capacity, he served as lead for the development of procedures and constraints for the launching of the air-launched Pegasus unmanned rocket. Tani also was responsible for defining, training, and leading the team of engineers who worked in the launch and control room.
NASA experience
Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in April 1996, Tani reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996. Having completed two years of training and evaluation, he qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist in 1998. He held technical duties in the Astronaut Office Computer Support Branch, and EVA Branch and has served as a Crew Support Astronaut (CSA) for Expedition-2. Tani flew on STS-108 in 2001, and has logged over 11 days in space, including over 4 EVA hours in one space walk. He is currently assigned as the Expedition-9 backup flight engineer.
Space flight experience
STS-108 Endeavour (December 5–17, 2001) was the 12th shuttle flight to visit the International Space Station. During the mission Tani served as MS-2. Endeavour's crew delivered the Expedition-4 crew and returned the Expedition-3 crew. The crew unloaded over three tons of supplies, logistics and science experiments from the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. Tani performed a space walk to wrap thermal blankets around ISS Solar Array Gimbals. STS-108 was accomplished in 185 Earth orbits, traveling 4.8 million miles in 283 hours and 36 minutes, including an EVA of 4 hours and 12 minutes. |
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