Pedro Francisco Duque Duque, OF, OMSE (Madrid, 14 March 1963) is a Spanish astronaut and aeronautics engineer who served as Minister of Science of the Government of Spain from 2018 to 2021. He was also Member of the Congress of Deputies from May 2019 until February 2020.

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish. (April 2014) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Spanish article. Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 5,083 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Spanish Wikipedia article at [[:es:Pedro Duque]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|es|Pedro Duque}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

The Most Excellent Pedro Duque OF OMSE
Minister of Science and Innovation
In office 7 June 2018 – 12 July 2021
Prime Minister	Pedro Sánchez
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Diana Morant
Member of the Congress of Deputies
In office 21 May 2019 – 21 February 2020
Constituency	Alicante
Personal details
Born	(1963-03-14) 14 March 1963 (age 59) Madrid, Spain
Political party	Independent
Occupation	Flight engineer
Awards	Grand Cross of Aeronautical Merit Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation Member of the Order of Friendship (Russian Federation) Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration"
Status	Retired
Space career
ESA astronaut
Time in space	18d 18h 46min
Selection	1992 ESA Group
Missions	STS-95, Soyuz TMA-3/2
Mission insignia

Biography

Early life and education

He was born in Madrid in 1963. His father was an air traffic controller and his mother a school teacher, both from Badajoz. In 1986, Duque earned a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. In 1986, he worked for GMV and for the European Space Agency (ESA) for six years before being selected as an astronaut candidate in 1992.

Astronaut

Duque underwent training in both Russia and the United States. His first spaceflight was as a mission specialist aboard space shuttle mission STS-95, during which Duque supervised ESA experimental modules. In October 2003, Duque visited the International Space Station on board of a Soyuz TMA Ship for several days during a crew changeover. The scientific program of this visit was called by ESA/Spain Misión Cervantes.

University and Business

In 2003, he started working at UPM School of Aeronautical Engineers as head of operations of the Spanish USOC, also lecturing students on space science and operations.[1]

In 2006, Duque was named Managing Director (CEO) of Deimos Imaging, a private company, that in 2009 put in orbit the first Spanish earth observation satellite (Deimos 1) with uses in agriculture, forestry wildfire detection and control. In 2011, he was named Executive President of the Company.

Return to the ESA

In October 2011, Duque returned to his position in the European Space Agency, retaking his position as an astronaut. Until 2015, he was the leader of the Flight Operations Office, with responsibility for ESA operations in the ISS. In 2016, Duque participated in ESA CAVES[2] training. After that he assumed the responsibility of the review of future ESA crewed flights, within the ESA's astronaut corps.

Minister

After the success of the motion of no confidence against the government of Mariano Rajoy in June 2018, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez named Pedro Duque Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities.[3]

In April 2019, Duque announced that his ministry was going to increase Spain's contribution to the European Space Agency by €701 million between 2020 and 2026 to ensure a proper contribution regarding the Spanish economy size.[4]

As the rest of the Sánchez cabinet, Duque ran for the April 2019 and November 2019 general elections, being elected MP for Alicante.[5] In January 2020, Sánchez confirmed Duque as minister of Science and Innovation, but the university affairs were granted to Manuel Castells, as the first minister of Universities.[6] After being confirmed as minister of Science, he resigned as MP in 21 February 2020.[7]

Honors and Decorations

• Order Of Friendship of the Russian Federation (1995)
• Grand Cross of Aeronautical Merit (1999)
• Prince of Asturias Award of International Cooperation (1999)
• Doctor Honoris Causa of the Technical University of Valencia (2005)
• Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" of the Russian federation (2011)
• Doctor Honoris Causa of the European University of Madrid (2013)
• Doctor Honoris Causa of the National University of Distance Education (2016)
• Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Almería

See also

• Lists of astronauts
• List of Hispanic astronauts

References

External links

• ESA profile page
• NASA Biography
• Spacefacts biography of Pedro Duque
• Events and Conferences
• Telescope Hosting site in Nerpio, Spain
• España: quién es Pedro Duque, el primer astronauta español y nuevo ministro de Ciencia

На других языках

[de] Pedro Francisco Duque

[es] Pedro Duque

[fr] Pedro Duque

[it] Pedro Duque

[ru] Дуке, Педро Франсиско