HOUSTON, April 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Former
astronaut and long-duration spaceflight pioneer Owen Garriott, 88, died today, April 15, at his home in Huntsville, Alabama. Garriott flew aboard the
Skylab space station during the Skylab 3 mission and on the Space
Shuttle Columbia for the STS-9/Spacelab-1 mission. He spent a total
of 70 days in space.
"The astronauts, scientists and engineers at Johnson Space
Center are saddened by the loss of Owen
Garriott," said Chief Astronaut Pat Forrester. "We remember
the history he made during the Skylab and space shuttle programs
that helped shape the space program we have today. Not only was he
a bright scientist and astronaut, he and his crewmates set the
stage for international cooperation in human spaceflight. He also
was the first to participate in amateur radio from space, a hobby
many of our astronauts still enjoy today."
Garriott was born in Enid,
Oklahoma. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical
engineering from the University of
Oklahoma, and master's and doctoral degrees in electrical
engineering from Stanford University,
Palo Alto, California. Garriott
served as an electronics officer while on active duty with the U.S.
Navy from 1953 to 1956, and was stationed aboard several U.S.
destroyers at sea. He then taught electronics, electromagnetic
theory and ionospheric physics as an associate professor at
Stanford. He performed research in
ionospheric physics and has authored or co-authored more than 40
scientific papers and one book on this subject.
He was selected as a scientist-astronaut by NASA in June 1965, and then completed a 53-week course in
flight training at Williams Air
Force Base, Arizona. He logged
more than 5,000 hours flying time -- including more than 2,900
hours in jet and light aircraft, spacecraft and helicopters. In
addition to NASA ratings, he held FAA commercial pilot and flight
instructor certification for instrument and multi-engine
aircraft.
Garriott was the science-pilot for Skylab 3, the second crewed
Skylab mission, and was in orbit from July
28 to Sept. 25, 1973. His crewmates were Commander
Alan Bean and Pilot Jack Lousma. The
crew accomplished 150% of mission goals while completing 858
revolutions of the Earth and traveling some 24.5 million miles. The
crew installed replacement rate gyros used for attitude control of
the spacecraft and a twin pole sunshade used for thermal control,
and repaired nine major experiment or operational equipment items.
They devoted 305 hours to extensive solar observations and
completed 333 medical experiment performances to obtain valuable
data on the effects of extended weightlessness on humans. The crew
of Skylab 3 logged 1,427 hours and 9 minutes each in space, setting
a world record for a single mission, and Garriott spent 13 hours
and 43 minutes in three separate spacewalks outside the orbital
workshop.
On his second and final flight, Garriott flew as a mission
specialist on the ninth space shuttle mission and the first
six-person flight. He launched aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia
for STS-9/Spacelab-1 from Kennedy Space
Center, Florida, on Nov. 28,
1983. His crewmates were Commander John Young, Pilot Brewster Shaw, Jr., fellow
mission specialist Robert Parker,
and Payload Specialists Byron
Lichtenberg and Ulf Merbold of (ESA) European Space Agency.
This six-person crew was the largest yet to fly aboard a single
spacecraft, the first international shuttle crew and the first to
carry payload specialists. During STS-9, the first human amateur
radio operations in space were conducted using Garriott's station
call, W5LFL. After 10 days of Spacelab hardware verification and
around-the-clock scientific operations, Columbia and its laboratory cargo landed on
the dry lakebed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on Dec. 8,
1983.
Garriott held other positions at Johnson Space Center such as
deputy and later director of Science and Applications, and as the
assistant director for Space and Life Science.
For Garriott's official NASA biography, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/garriott_owen.pdf
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SOURCE NASA