NASA's First Space Shuttle Astronaut Selection: Redefining the Right Stuff

622 Pages·2020·20.693 MB·English

by  David J. Shayler, Colin Burgess

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David J. Shayler
Colin Burgess
NASA’s First Space Shuttle Astronaut Selection
Redefining the Right Stuff
David J. Shayler and Colin Burgess
NASA's First Space
Shuttle Astronaut
Selection
Redefining the Right Stuff
David J. Shayler Colin Burgess
Astronautical Historian Spaceflight Historian
Astro Info Service Ltd Bangor, New South Wales, Australia
Halesowen, West Midlands, UK
SPRINGER-PRAXIS BOOKS IN SPACE EXPLORATION
Springer Praxis Books
Space Exploration
ISBN 978-3-030-45741-9 ISBN 978-3-030-45742-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45742-6
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
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Project Editor: Michael D. Shayler
Cover design: Jim Wilkie
CAPTIONS FOR COVER IMAGES:
Front: A stunning bird’s-eye view of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, with its External Tank and twin Solid Rocket
Boosters, during its rollout to Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, as STS-79 on August 20, 1996.
During this mission, John Blaha traded places with TFNG Shannon Lucid at the end of her six-month tour on the
Russian Mir space station.
Back, top left: The crew of STS-7 on the flight deck of Challenger, June 1983. Under the command of Robert
‘Crip’ Crippen [rear left], the first four members of the TFNG to fly on the Space Shuttle were [l to r] Mission
Specialist Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, Pilot Rick Hauck, and Mission Specialists
Norman Thagard and John Fabian.
Back, top right: Sixteen years later, in July 1999, Mission Specialist Steve Hawley − seen here on the middeck
of Columbia during his fifth mission, STS-93 – became the last member of the Class of 1978 to fly in space,
ending an era of over 100 missions in Earth orbit.
Back, lower right: The official emblem for the Class of 1978, designed by Robert McCall.
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Contents
Authors’ Preface ................................................... x
Acknowledgements ................................................. xv
Foreword ......................................................... xviii
Dedication......................................................... xxii
List of Abbreviations and acronyms ................................... xxiii
Prologue .......................................................... xxviii
1 Expanding on ‘The Right Stuff’ ................................... 1
Pioneering the selection of Shuttle astronauts.......................... 2
Meeting the astronaut criteria ...................................... 6
Preparing to test the applicants ..................................... 12
An applicant reflects ............................................. 16
Other candidate voices............................................ 19
The Thirty-Five New Guys (TFNG) ................................. 31
2 Who should fly? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
The evolution of a Shuttle crew..................................... 40
Pioneering Space Shuttle astronaut assignments (1969−1980s)............ 73
3 The new Pilot astronauts......................................... 81
Daniel C. Brandenstein ........................................... 81
Michael L. Coats ................................................ 82
Richard O. Covey................................................ 84
John O. Creighton ............................................... 85
Robert L. Gibson ................................................ 85
Frederick D. Gregory............................................. 86
S. David Griggs ................................................. 88
Frederick H. Hauck .............................................. 89
Jon A. McBride ................................................. 90
v
vi Contents
Steven R. Nagel ................................................. 91
Francis R. Scobee................................................ 92
Brewster H. Shaw ............................................... 94
Loren J. Shriver ................................................. 95
David M. Walker ................................................ 95
Donald E. Williams .............................................. 96
Some notable but unsuccessful Pilot applicants ........................ 97
4 The first Mission Specialists ...................................... 101
Guion S. Bluford, Jr. ............................................. 101
James F. Buchli ................................................. 102
John M. Fabian.................................................. 104
Anna L. Fisher.................................................. 105
Dale A. Gardner................................................. 106
Terry J. Hart.................................................... 107
Steven A. Hawley................................................ 108
Jeffrey A. Hoffman............................................... 108
Shannon M. W. Lucid ............................................ 109
Ronald E. McNair ............................................... 111
Richard M. Mullane.............................................. 112
George D. Nelson................................................ 113
Ellison S. Onizuka............................................... 114
Judith A. Resnik................................................. 115
Sally K. Ride ................................................... 116
M. Rhea Seddon................................................. 117
Robert L. Stewart................................................ 118
Kathryn D. Sullivan.............................................. 119
Norman E. Thagard .............................................. 120
James D. A. van Hoften........................................... 121
Some who narrowly missed selection ................................ 122
5 All Change in the Astronaut Office ................................ 127
Introducing the Thirty-Five New Guys ............................... 128
Walking in hallowed halls ......................................... 140
The Astronaut Office evolves....................................... 145
Broadening the opportunities....................................... 156
The other ‘odd critters’ ........................................... 157
Space Shuttle taxi drivers.......................................... 159
Office regeneration - again......................................... 160
6 Ascan pioneers ................................................. 162
Why an Ascan? ................................................. 162
Schooling the Ascans............................................. 166
Now for the real work ............................................ 189
The long wait................................................... 190
Contents vii
7 Silver Pin astronauts ............................................ 194
Technical and support assignments .................................. 195
Astronaut support roles explained................................... 200
Launch support roles (KSC Florida) ................................. 201
Mission support roles (JSC Houston) ................................ 210
Management support roles......................................... 227
Ready to earn their Astronaut Wings................................. 228
8 Preparing to fly................................................. 229
A new training protocol........................................... 230
Space Shuttle crewing nomenclature................................. 232
The astronaut roles on a Shuttle crew ................................ 234
Training the Shuttle astronauts ..................................... 243
November 1980 training status ..................................... 243
Flight crew tasks circa 1980........................................ 248
Flight Data File ................................................. 250
Crew responsibilities ............................................. 250
The Training Division (1986) ...................................... 251
Planning a training cycle (circa 1986)................................ 254
Shuttle crew training cycle......................................... 258
Space Shuttle flight crew training facilities............................ 260
Other NASA locations............................................ 271
Department Of Defense (DOD)..................................... 273
Foreign lands ................................................... 275
Putting theory into practice ........................................ 277
T-minus and counting............................................. 278
9 NASA’s All-Electric Flying Machine ............................... 280
Supporting the Flight Tests ........................................ 283
The first flight-suitable TFNG candidates ............................. 290
An operational Shuttle............................................ 297
10 The TFNG take wings ........................................... 307
Astronauts at last ................................................ 308
Satellites, spacewalks and schedules................................. 324
A busy year: 1985 ............................................... 334
Mission impossible .............................................. 346
Summary ...................................................... 347
11 “Go at throttle up”.............................................. 349
Challenger ..................................................... 351
The Space Shuttle returns to flight................................... 363
Astronaut departures ............................................. 365
Announcing a Return-to-Flight crew................................. 369
A decade on .................................................... 377
viii Contents
A frightening close call ........................................... 384
Schedules, science commanders and the Soviets........................ 395
Leaking Orbiters ................................................ 403
A new decade dawns ............................................. 407
12 The Final Countdowns .......................................... 411
Into the twilight of an era.......................................... 412
Co-operating with the Soviets ...................................... 416
International Spacelabs ........................................... 419
Freedom to become International ................................... 430
A three-phase program............................................ 434
The first TFNG visit a (Russian) space station ......................... 440
The longest mission.............................................. 447
Dawn of a new era............................................... 454
The last flight................................................... 455
The final years in the Office........................................ 457
Summary ...................................................... 462
13 Flying a desk................................................... 465
Hanging up the space suit ......................................... 465
Where are they now? ............................................. 472
Moving on ..................................................... 503
14 Reflections..................................................... 505
A matter of time................................................. 505
2018 : A ruby year................................................ 507
Reflections from the Class of ’78.................................... 511
Summary ...................................................... 522
15 The legacy..................................................... 523
A close-knit group ............................................... 525
The legacy of the TFNG .......................................... 525
NASA After the TFNG ........................................... 527
Afterword ......................................................... 531
Appendices ........................................................ 534
1: NASA Class of 1978 Astronaut Applicants........................... 534
2: The Class of 1978 ............................................... 548
3: Group 8 Space Shuttle experience.................................. 555
4: Group 8 EVA experience ......................................... 559
5: NASA Astronaut Group 8: A selected chronology..................... 562
Contents ix
Bibliography....................................................... 568
About the authors .................................................. 575
Other works by the authors .......................................... 578
Index ............................................................. 581
Authors’ Preface
At first, this book was never going to happen. Previously, either individually or
working as co-authors, we had researched and put together four books covering
the early NASA astronaut selections involving Groups 1 through to 7 between
April 9, 1959 and August 14, 1969. During that time, 73 men were chosen to crew
and support America’s pioneering manned space missions under the Mercury,
Gemini and Apollo programs. As mentioned in our previous work, The Last of
NASA’s Original Pilot Astronauts, several of these astronauts remained active
long enough to crew missions in the first decade of Shuttle flight operations
between 1981 and 1990.
We knew that 2018 would mark the 40th anniversary of the first astronaut selec-
tion of the new Space Shuttle era, and even though we had intended that our previ-
ous book on the Group 5 and 7 astronauts would end our collaboration on the
subject of astronaut selections, we decided this anniversary should not go
unmarked. We therefore determined to research and write the history of NASA’s
Group 8 astronauts, unofficially known as The Thirty-Five New Guys, or by the
acronym TFNG (which is further explained later in this book).
Although there have been biographies and memoirs published on several of the
29 men and six women selected in this 1978 group, in addition to countless maga-
zine and newspaper articles, there has never been a book published which fully
details the lives, accomplishments and sometimes tragedies associated with each
member of this group. That is all presented here, along with the chronology of the
selection process begun in 1976, and the personal recollections of some who were
successful in their application – and others who were not.
Unlike previous astronaut intakes, NASA opened the way for women and
minorities with this selection process, not only to apply for the position of Pilot
astronaut and the new category of Mission Specialist, but actually to be selected.
History records that the civilian space agency announced the names of the 35
x