Dale Gardner

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Dale Gardner
Dale Gardner
Country: United States
Organization: NASA
selected on January 16, 1978
( 8th NASA Group )
Calls: 2 space flights
Start of the
first space flight: 		August 30, 1983
Landing of the
last space flight: 		November 16, 1984
Time in space: 14d 0h 52min
EVA inserts: 2
EVA total duration: 11h 42min
retired on October 1986
Space flights

Dale Allan Gardner (born November 8, 1948 in Fairmont , Minnesota - † February 19, 2014 in Colorado Springs , Colorado ) was an American astronaut .

education

Gardner received a bachelor's degree in engineering physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1970 . He then joined the United States Navy and was trained as a naval aviator.

Astronaut activity

In January 1978, Gardner was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate. After his training as a mission specialist, he worked in the software department and was on the support team for the space shuttle mission STS-4 .

STS-8

On August 30, 1983, Gardner flew into space for the first time on the space shuttle Challenger . The STS-8 mission was the first space shuttle flight to both take off and land at night. The cargo consisted of the Indian multi-purpose satellite Insat 1-B .

STS-41-H

The STS-41-H mission was to be carried out on behalf of the US Department of Defense in September 1984 or deploy a TDRS satellite instead. The mission was canceled due to problems with the IUS upper level. The crew nominated were Frederick Hauck , David M. Walker , Joseph P. Allen , Anna Lee Fisher , Dale Gardner and the payload specialists of the US Air Force, Gary Payton and Frank Casserino. Daryl Joseph was scheduled as the replacement payload specialist. The crew without payload specialists went to the STS-51-A mission.

STS-51-A

Dale Gardner occasionally sold satellites

Gardner completed his second space flight aboard the Discovery from November 8 to November 16, 1984. Two satellites were released on the STS-51-A mission and two other satellites were recaptured, while the STS-41-B mission was on one exposed to low orbit. To capture the two satellites Gardner and his colleague Joseph Allen took two spacewalks .

STS-62-A

STS-62-A was scheduled to launch in July 1986 as the first shuttle mission from Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg Air Force Base . Gardner would have flown the Discovery into a polar orbit on the first shuttle mission. Robert Crippen would have commanded the Discovery on the first shuttle mission in a polar orbit for the US Department of Defense. The crew would have consisted of Guy Gardner , Dale Gardner, Mike Mullane , Jerry Ross, as well as the military rastronaut John Watterson (MSE) and the politician Edward C. Aldridge , alongside Crippen . The flight was canceled because the US Department of Defense withdrew from the shuttle program after the Challenger disaster. Even later, no more shuttles took off from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

According to NASA

In October 1986, Gardner left NASA and resumed his military service with the US Strategic Command in Colorado Springs. He served over two years in the Space Control Operations Division at Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Base and moved to Peterson Air Force Base for Space Control in June 1989 . In October 1990 he switched to the private sector at TRW , where he worked as a program manager in the department for space and defense technology.

Private

Dale Gardner was the father of two children. He was divorced and died of a brain aneurysm in Colorado Springs in February 2014 .

See also

Web links

Commons : Dale Gardner  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dale Gardner, jetpack-flying astronaut who salvaged satellites, dies at 65 | collectSPACE. collectspace.com, February 21, 2014, accessed February 21, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Gardner, Dale
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gardner, Dale Allan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronaut
DATE OF BIRTH November 8, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Fairmont , Minnesota
DATE OF DEATH 19th February 2014
Place of death Colorado Springs , Colorado