Henry Warren Hartsfield

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Henry Hartsfield
Henry Hartsfield
Country: United States
Organization: NASA
selected on June 30, 1966
( 2nd MOL group )
August 14, 1969
(7th NASA group)
Calls: 3 space flights
Start of the
first space flight: 		June 27, 1982
Landing of the
last space flight: 		November 6, 1985
Time in space: 20d 2h 50min
retired on 1998
Space flights

Henry Warren "Hank" Hartsfield, Jr. (born November 21, 1933 in Birmingham , Alabama , † July 17, 2014 in League City , Texas ) was an American astronaut .

Life

Hartsfield attended West End High School in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1954 he received a bachelor's degree in physics from Auburn University . He received a degree in physics from Duke University and a degree in aerospace engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology . In 1971 he received a Masters in Engineering from the University of Tennessee .

In 1955, Hartsfield joined the United States Air Force . During this time he was stationed at the US air force base in Bitburg in Germany. He was later trained as a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base and was then an instructor himself.

Astronaut activity

In 1966, Hartsfield was selected by the Air Force as an astronaut for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) military space station project. After the program was discontinued in June 1969, he joined NASA.

There he was initially a member of the support teams for the Apollo 16 lunar mission and for all manned missions to the Skylab space station.

STS-4

Mattingly and Hartsfield after STS-4 landed with President Reagan and his wife

After he had only served as a substitute pilot for the space shuttle missions STS-2 and STS-3 , Hartsfield flew into space for the first time as a pilot of the space shuttle Columbia on June 27, 1982 . On this fourth and final test flight of Columbia, he was accompanied by Commander Thomas K. Mattingly . Mission objectives of this seven-day flight were further tests on the launch and reentry of the space shuttle as well as further studies of long-term thermal tests of the orbiter. In addition, the box-shaped IECM (Induced Environment Contamination Monitor) experiment was lifted out of the hold with the robotic arm of the orbiter. In addition to a secret cargo for the US Department of Defense , the first active GAS container (GetAway Special) was on board, which contained nine experiments. The astronauts also conducted medical experiments on themselves by trained and tightening the space suits for spacewalks on subsequent shuttle missions.

STS-41-D

Hartsfield was the commander of the space shuttle Discovery on its maiden flight on August 30, 1984. Besides him, the other five crew members were all space novices. During the six-day mission, the three satellites SBS-D, SYNCOM IV-2 (also known as LEASAT 2) and Telstar 3-C were deployed . In addition, the OAST-1 solar cell experiment and the CFES-III experiment to study crystal growth were carried out. In addition, recordings were made with an IMAX camera that was carried along .

STS-61-A

In the German Spacelab mission D-1, Hartsfield was the commander of the last successful Challenger flight. On October 30, 1985, the eight-person crew of any single spaceship flew into space. During this seven-day mission, 75 experiments from the fields of medicine, materials science, biology and navigation were carried out. In addition, the GLOMR (Global Low Orbiting Message Relay) satellite was deployed.

Another NASA career

From 1986 to 1987, Hartsfield was deputy head of the astronauts office and in 1987 became deputy director of flight crew operations. In 1989 he worked briefly for the "Office of Space Flight" at NASA headquarters and in 1990 he worked in the project office for the space station at the Marshall Space Flight Center . In 1991 he returned to the Johnson Space Center and worked there on the program for the space station now known as "Freedom".

According to NASA

After leaving NASA, he joined Raytheon Technical Services in Houston as Vice President of Aerospace Engineering Services .

Private

Henry Hartsfield and his wife Judy had two daughters. His daughter Keely (* 1959), who also worked for NASA, died in March 2014 at the age of 54. Hartsfield died on July 17, 2014 at the age of 80 from complications from surgery on his back.

See also

Web links

Commons : Henry Hartsfield  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ huffington post: Astronaut Hank Hartsfield, Who Led First Flight Of Space Shuttle Discovery, Dies At 80
  2. ↑ CollectSpace: Astronaut Hank Hartsfield, led first flight of space shuttle Discovery, dies at 80
personal data
SURNAME Hartsfield, Henry Warren
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hartsfield, Henry Warren Junior (full name); Hartsfield, Hank junior (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronaut
DATE OF BIRTH November 21, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Birmingham , Alabama , Alabama
DATE OF DEATH 17th July 2014
Place of death League City , Texas