Argentinian Astronaut Fernando Caldeiro dies at 51

Fernando "Frank" Caldeiro, a NASA astronaut and the first person of Argentinean descent to train for a spaceflight, died on Saturday after a two and a half year battle with brain cancer. He was 51.

First hired by NASA in 1991 as an expert in cryogenics and propulsion systems for the Kennedy Space Center's safety and mission assurance office in Florida, he took part in 52 space shuttle launches before being chosen as an astronaut candidate in 1996.

As a member of NASA's 16th class of "ascans," dubbed "The Sardines" because at 44 candidates they were the largest group of astronauts to be chosen to date, Caldeiro went through basic training alongside Peggy Whitson, the current chief of the Astronaut Office, and Jeff Williams, who arrived aboard the International Space Station (ISS) last week, among many others.

Caldeiro however, would never be assigned to a mission. This must be the most devastating and disappointing feeling for an 'astronaut'. To work with every fibre of your being with the sole intention of 'going into Space', experiencing the roller-coaster Shuttle ride into Zero Gravity, looking back down on our beautiful Earth and returning with a wealth of sensations, visions and experiences to relate to the Earth bound peoples of the world. Only it never happened.

In 2006, he told the Orlando Sentinel newspaper, "Flying in space, to me, has become more like, well, you know, you can't chase something so much that you run it over. You can be obsessed by it and be miserable or you can say, 'Well, this is an opportunity; I'm first in line in front of 350-million other people.'"

Embracing a career with NASA that followed the latter path, Caldeiro served in technical support roles, first as the lead astronaut for the station's life support systems and its European-built components, reviewing the design and manufacture of the U.S. "Harmony" Node 2 and European Space Agency (ESA) Columbus modules, as well as the yet-to-be-launched Cupola robotics viewing port and the space shuttle-lofted cargo carriers, the Multi Purpose Logistics Modules (MPLM).

From June 2005 to December 2006, Caldeiro served as the lead astronaut in charge of shuttle software testing at the Johnson Space Center's Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory, testing in-flight maintenance procedures, prior to being reassigned to Houston's nearby Ellington Field to direct the high-altitude atmospheric research experiment program carried onboard NASA's WB-57 aircraft.

He was still serving in that role when he passed away. He never did fully experience the thrill of his dreams and that brings me sadness for a life, so well spent but only partly fulfilled.