Frederick W. Sturckow

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Frederick Sturckow
Frederick Sturckow
Country: United States
Organization: NASA
selected on December 8, 1994
( 15th NASA Group )
Calls: 4 space flights
Start of the
first space flight: 		4th December 1998
Landing of the
last space flight: 		September 12, 2009
Time in space: 51d 9h 36min
retired on March 2013
Space flights

Frederick Wilford "Rick" Sturckow (born August 11, 1961 in La Mesa , California ) is a former American astronaut . He is the first space traveler to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) four times .

Life

Growing up on a farm near the town of Lakeside , almost 30 kilometers east of San Diego , Sturckow left Grossmont High School in La Mesa in 1978. After two years as a mechanic at the agricultural machinery manufacturer Harvester , he began at the California Polytechnic State University , a mechanical engineering degree . In 1984 he received a bachelor's degree and joined the US Marines (USMC).

After completing the basic course at the Officer Candidates School (three months), Sturckow attended an advanced course as an infantry officer at the Basic School (six months) in Virginia . He then trained as a USMC pilot in Florida and got his license in 1987. This was followed by a course for jet planes in Texas , before he was assigned to Kampfgeschwader 333 in South Carolina , which at that time was just being converted to type F / A-18 "Hornet" machines .

With the "Fighting Shamrocks" (Navy designation VMFA-333) he was sent to Japan , Korea and the Philippines for seven months . Back in the United States, he attended the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School in Miramar (California) and was trained as a tactical officer. This course has been known since the film of the same name starring Tom Cruise as "Top Gun", although its official name is Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor.

In August 1990 Sturckow was sent to the south of the island state of Bahrain with the VMFA-333 . From Sheik Isa Air Base he took part in the Second Gulf War and until April 1991 flew 41 missions against the Iraqi troops as part of " Operation Desert Storm " .

At the United States Air Force Test Pilot School, Sturckow was trained as a test pilot for one year at Edwards Air Force Base from the beginning of 1992 . He was then stationed at the Naval Air Warfare Center in Patuxent River ( Maryland ) and worked on the further development of the F / A-18 until he switched to NASA.

NASA

It was more on a whim that Sturckow applied to NASA. All of his friends had submitted their records by the time he was at test pilot school, and because he was looking for a career change, so did he. It was lucky that his first application was accepted straight away.

Sturckow was selected as one of ten candidate pilots with the 15th astronaut group in December 1994. 121 finalists emerged from a total of 2962 applicants who met the formal selection criteria. They were invited to the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston , Texas in the summer of 1994 for tests, job interviews and medical examinations.

Just six months after completing the one-year basic training, Sturckow received his first flight assignment. As a pilot, he was part of the crew of STS-88 , the first flight to build the International Space Station (ISS) . In December 1998, the space shuttle Endeavor brought Unity, the station's first connection node, into orbit. With three exits , two astronauts attached the knot to the Sarja module that had been launched a few weeks earlier . Afterwards, the ISS was inaugurated when you entered it for the first time.

In August 2001 Sturckow undertook his second space flight, for which he had been preparing for almost a year. Again he acted as deputy commander and again the target was the ISS. STS-105 brought the 3rd resident crew to the station and picked up the crew of ISS Expedition 2 , which ended a five-month stay in orbit.

Sturckow received his first command in August 2002 when he was given control of STS-117 . Because of the Columbia accident in February 2003, the flight planning of the shuttle program had to be changed and Sturckow's third flight had to be postponed by several years. STS-117 was finally carried out in June 2007. The Atlantis brought the S3 / S4 element to the ISS. During four outboard missions, the component was mounted on the station, the solar panels extended and the second wing of the P6 solar module retracted.

Sturckow took off for his fourth space flight on August 29, 2009. As commander of the STS-128 mission , he flew the space shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station. This made him the first person to be on the ISS four times. The landing took place on September 12, 2009.

On January 13, 2011, Sturckow was nominated as a substitute commander of the STS-134 mission . He was to represent Commandant Mark Kelly during his absence. Kelly's wife, the politician Gabrielle Giffords , was seriously injured in an assassination attempt on January 8th . After February 11, Kelly resumed his duties as commandant.

Virgin Galactic

Sturckow left NASA in March 2013 and went to Virgin Galactic , where he became a test pilot for the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft . On December 13, 2018, on a suborbital flight of the VSS Unity, he crossed the 50-mile barrier, which in the USA is considered the boundary to space. So that it is astronaut badge as Commercial Astronaut of the Federal Aviation Administration awarded.

Private

Sturckow is married and has two children.

See also

Web links

Commons : Frederick W. Sturckow  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ NASA Announces Backup Commander For STS-134 Mission. NASA, January 13, 2011, accessed January 13, 2011 .
  2. ↑ Chris Bergin: From Shuttle to SS2 - Sturckow joins Virgin Galactic. nasaspaceflight.com, May 7, 2013, accessed May 8, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Michael Sheetz: Virgin Galactic flies its first astronauts to the edge of space, taking one step closer to space tourism. CNBC, December 13, 2018, accessed December 14, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Sturckow, Frederick W.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sturckow, Rick (nickname); Sturckow, Frederick Wilford
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronaut
DATE OF BIRTH August 11, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH La Mesa , California