Guy Spence Gardner
| Guy Gardner | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Country: | United States |
| Organization: | NASA |
| selected on | May 19, 1980 ( 9th NASA Group ) |
| Calls: | 2 space flights |
| Start of the first space flight: |
2nd December 1988 |
| Landing of the last space flight: |
December 11, 1990 |
| Time in space: | 13d 8h 10min |
| retired on | June 1991 |
| Space flights | |
Guy Spence Gardner (born January 6, 1948 in Altavista , Virginia ) is a retired American astronaut .
education
Gardner graduated from George Washington High School in Virginia in 1965. He then studied engineering , aerospace technology and mathematics at the United States Air Force Academy , graduating in 1969 with a bachelor's degree . In 1970 he earned a Masters in Space Engineering from Purdue University .
US Air Force
He joined the US Air Force in 1971 and trained on the F-4 . In 1972 he flew 177 combat missions in the Vietnam War from Thailand . He then became an instructor for the F-4 and from 1975 he was trained as a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base .
NASA
In 1980 he was elected to NASA's 9th astronaut group and trained as a pilot for a year.
STS-62-A
For the first mission of a space shuttle from the SLC-6 launch complex at Vandenberg Air Force Base , STS-62-A , he was selected as a pilot, but this mission was canceled after the Challenger disaster. Its commander would have been Robert Laurel Crippen , who piloted astronaut legend John Watts Young on the STS-1 mission , the maiden flight of a space shuttle.
STS-27
Gardner had his first and shortest space mission as a pilot of the STS-27 mission from December 2 to December 6, 1988 with the space shuttle Atlantis . This four-day mission was a secret US Department of Defense mission that suspended the Lacrosse 1 reconnaissance satellite. On board was Jerry Lynn Ross , who would later become the first person to set out into space seven times.
STS-35
On his second and final space mission, Gardner was again a pilot, but this time on board the Columbia . The main objective of the mission was astronomical observations with the devices of the ASTRO-1 platform in the range of UV and X-rays.
On this flight there were take-off delays, so that for the first time in history two space shuttles stood facing each other on the launch pad, ready to take off.
There were some technical problems during the mission, for example the displays for aligning the ASTRO-1 telescopes did not work. The telescopes therefore had to be controlled from Earth. The scientific goals could still be achieved to about 70 percent.
After the space flights
In 1991 he left NASA to become chief of the test pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base. In 1992 he returned to NASA, leaving the US Air Force for good to head the Shuttle Mir program .
Summary
| No. | mission | function | Flight date | Flight duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | STS-27 | pilot | December 2 - December 6, 1988 | 4d 9h 5min |
| 2 | STS-35 | pilot | December 2 - December 11, 1990 | 8d 23h 5min |
Private
He is married and has three children.
In his youth, Gardner was active with the Boy Scouts of America and reached the second highest rank, the so-called Life Scout .
See also
Web links
- Short biography of Guy Spence Gardner at spacefacts.de
- NASA biography of Guy Spence Gardner (English; PDF)
- Biography of Guy Spence Gardner in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gardner, Guy Spence |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American astronaut |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 6, 1948 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Altavista , Virginia |