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Don Thomas is an astronaut, scientist, professional speaker, educator, and author of Orbit of Discovery about his STS-70 mission aboard space shuttle Discovery. A veteran of four flights, Don has spent 44 days in space and orbited the Earth nearly 700 times. Today, Don is helping to inform and excite the public about our future in space and preparing our next generation of scientists, engineers, and explorers for their missions in the future.

Don was selected as a Mission Specialist astronaut in NASA’s 13th group of astronauts in 1990. A veteran astronaut, he went on the fly on four space shuttle missions during his 20 year career with NASA.
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Since retiring from NASA in 2007, Don has worked to educate and inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, and astronauts. With a strong community outreach effort Don visits nearly 75 schools a year speaking to 10,000 students ranging from pre-school to high school to seniors and other lifelong learners.
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Don is an experienced public speaker presenting keynote addresses and a wide range of informative and inspirational talks. He is a skilled and accessible presenter who engages and interacts well with audiences of all backgrounds and ages.
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Don’s book, Orbit of Discovery, published by the University of Akron Press, is now available! The book chronicles Don’s second flight which was aboard Space Shuttle Discovery. The mission was noteworthy for being declared “The All-Ohio Space Shuttle Mission” and is also remembered as “The Woodpecker Flight”.
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Photo credit NASA unless otherwise indicated.