Fernando Caldeiro

Fernando Caldeiro, called Frank (1958 to 2009), was an Argentine-born American engineer and NASA astronaut, the first person of Argentine descent to train for a spaceflight. Born in the Ituzaingó district of Buenos Aires, he moved to the United States at sixteen, studied aerospace technology at Farmingdale State College, and took a bachelor degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Arizona and a master degree in engineering management at the University of Central Florida. He worked on the production and flight testing of the B-1B Lancer bomber for Rockwell, then as a main propulsion system specialist and cryogenics expert at the Kennedy Space Center, where he took part in 52 shuttle launches. NASA selected him as an astronaut candidate in 1996, and he later led astronaut work on station life support systems, shuttle software testing and the WB-57 high altitude atmospheric research program. He died in 2009 after a long illness with a brain tumor.