El Paso Astronaut Danny Olivas Leaves NASA
El Paso astronaut John “Danny” Olivas has left NASA, according to the space agency.
His last day was on Monday.
Olivas’ father, Juan Olivas, told ABC-7 his son left because of the ending of the space shuttle program and President Barack Obama’s cancellation of the Orion program. He said he had not spoken to his son about what’s next.
Olivas has flown on two shuttle flights and has accumulated more than 668 hours in space. He served as a mission specialist on STS-117 in 2007 and on STS-128 in 2009 and conducted five spacewalks. Olivas accumulated more than 34 hours of extravehicular time in space.
“Danny’s expertise in spacewalking and materials engineering will be sorely missed with his departure,” Peggy Whitson, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, said.
Olivas is a graduate of UTEP and Burges High School.
The space shuttle program is scheduled to have two more flights before being retired this year.
