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Personal Profile: Born October 20, 1963, in Montréal, Quebec, Ms. Payette enjoys running, skiing, racquet sports and scuba diving. She has a multi-engine commercial pilot license with instrument and float ratings. Ms. Payette is fluent in French and English, and converses in Spanish, Italian, Russian and German. She plays the piano and has sung with the Chamber Choir of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Piacere Vocale in Basel, Switzerland, and the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra Choir in Toronto. Education: Attended primary and secondary school in Montréal, Quebec. International Baccalaureate (1982) from the United World College of the Atlantic in South Wales, UK. Bachelor of Engineering, - Electrical (1986) from McGill University, Montréal. Master of Applied Science, - Computer Engineering (1990) from the University of Toronto.

Organizations: Member of l'Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec and Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. Board of Directors, Queen's University. Appointed member of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for three mandates.. Les Amies d'affaire du Ritz.

Special Honours: Received one of six Canadian scholarships to attend the United World College of the Atlantic in South Wales, UK (1980). Greville-Smith Scholarship (1982-1986), highest undergraduate award at McGill University. McGill Faculty Scholar (1983-1986), graduated with distinction in 1986. NSERC post-graduate Scholarship (1988-1990). Massey College Fellowship (1988 to 1990). Canadian Council of Professional Engineers; distinction for exceptional achievement by a young engineer (1994). Chevalier de l'Ordre de la Pléiade de la francophonie (2001). Ordre national du Québec (2002).

Honorary Degrees: Queen's University (1999); University of Ottawa (1999); Simon Fraser University (2000); Université Laval (2000); University of Regina (2001); Royal Roads University (2001); University of Toronto (2001); University of Victoria (2002); Nipissing University (2002); McGill University (2003); Mount Saint Vincent University (2004); McMaster University (2004); University of Lethbridge (2005); Mount Allison University (2005).

Experience: Before joining the space program, Ms. Payette conducted research in computer systems, natural language processing, automatic speech recognition and the application of interactive technologies in space. She was system engineer with IBM Canada (1986-88); research assistant at the University of Toronto (1988-90); visiting scientist at the IBM Research Laboratory, in Zurich, Switzerland (1991). She was research engineer for the Speech Research Group, Bell-Northern Research/Nortel, Montréal (1992).

In June 1992, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) selected Ms. Payette from 5330 applicants to become one of four astronauts. After undergoing basic training in Canada, she worked as a technical advisor for the Mobile Servicing System (MSS) - an advanced robotics system and Canada's contribution to the International Space Station. In 1993, Ms. Payette established the Human-Computer Interaction Group at the Canadian Astronaut Program and served as a technical specialist on the NATO International Research Study Group (RSG-10) on speech processing (1993 to 1996).

In preparation for a space mission assignment, Ms. Payette obtained her commercial pilot license, studied Russian and logged 120 hours as a research operator on board reduced gravity aircraft. In April 1996, Ms. Payette was certified as a one-atmosphere, deep-sea diving suit operator. Ms. Payette obtained her captaincy on the CT-114 military jet at the Canadian Air Force Base in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in February 1996. She obtained her military instrument rating in 1997. Ms. Payette has logged more than 1100 hours of flight time, more than half of it on high performance jet aircraft.

NASA Experience: Ms. Payette reported to the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas in August 1996. She completed initial astronaut training in April 1998 and was assigned to work on technical issues in robotics for the Astronaut Office.

Julie Payette flew on Space Shuttle Discovery from May 27 to June 6, 1999 as a crewmember of STS-96. During the mission, the crew performed the first manual docking of the Shuttle to the International Space Station (ISS), and delivered four tons of supplies to the Station. Ms. Payette served as a mission specialist, was responsible for the Station systems and operated the Canadarm robotic arm while in orbit. The STS-96 mission was accomplished in 153 orbits of the Earth, traveling more than six million kilometres in 9 days, 19 hours and 13 minutes. Ms. Payette became the first Canadian to participate in an ISS assembly mission and to board the Space Station.

Ms. Payette represented the Canadian astronaut corps at the European and Russian space agencies from September 1999 to December 2002. She has supervised procedure development and equipment verification for the International Space Station Flight Program.

Current Assignment: Ms. Payette works as a CapCom (Capsule Communicator) at the Mission Control Center in Houston. The CapCom is responsible for all communications between ground controllers and the astronauts in flight. In 2006, Ms. Payette was CapCom for mission STS-121 on Space Shuttle Discovery. She divides her time between these responsibilities and currency training for astronauts.

July 2007