Jeffrey A. Hoffman

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Jeffrey Hoffman
Jeffrey Hoffman
Country: United States
Organization: NASA
selected on January 16, 1978
( 8th NASA Group )
Calls: 5 space flights
Start of the
first space flight:
April 12, 1985
Landing of the
last space flight:
March 9, 1996
Time in space: 50d 11h 54min
EVA inserts: 4th
EVA total duration: 25h 8min
retired on July 1997
Space flights

Jeffrey Alan Hoffman (born November 2, 1944 in Brooklyn , New York ) is a retired American astronaut .

education

Hoffman received a bachelor's degree in astronomy from Amherst College in 1966 and a PhD in astrophysics from Harvard University in 1971 . In 1988 he received a Masters in Materials Science from Rice University .

From 1972 to 1975 Hoffman worked at the University of Leicester in Great Britain on the development of various space X-ray telescopes and other experiments on X-rays. He was also an X-ray experiment for the satellite EXOSAT the ESA involved.

From 1975 to 1978 he worked as a project scientist in the space research center of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Astronaut activity

In January 1978, Hoffman was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate. During the preparations for the first shuttle flights worked at the flight simulation laboratory in Downey . He was a member of the support team for the space shuttle mission STS-5 and worked as a liaison officer ( CAPCOM ) for the missions STS-8 and STS-82 . He was also a representative of the astronauts bureau for payload security. He worked on the development of a spacesuit for space exits and on the preparations for the construction of the International Space Station (ISS). In 1996 he became head of the Astronauts Bureau's Payload and Habitability Department.

STS-41-F

STS-41-F was scheduled for August 1984 with the Discovery. This would have been the Discovery's first flight had it not been canceled due to payload delays. The crew were Karol J. Bobko , Donald E. Williams , Rhea Seddon , David Griggs and Jeffrey Hoffman. The flight then became STS-51-E .

STS-51-E

This Challenger flight was canceled due to problems with the IUS upper level. A TDRS satellite should have been deployed. The crew included Hoffman Karol Bobko, Donald Williams, Rhea Seddon, David Griggs, the French payload specialist Patrick Baudry and the politician Jake Garn .

STS-51-D

Hoffman and Griggs during the space exit

On April 12, 1985, Hoffman launched as a mission specialist on the space shuttle Discovery for the first time into space . The payload was the two satellites TELESAT-9 and LEASAT-3 . In the latter, however, the automatic commissioning of the antenna and the engine did not work. During a space exit, Hoffman and his astronaut colleague David Griggs could not fix this defect.

STS-61-E

The STS-61-E mission with the Columbia space shuttle should have launched the ASTRO-1 Spacelab mission into space in March 1986. The flight was canceled after the Challenger disaster . The team would have consisted of Jon McBride , Richard N. Richards , David Leestma , Jeffrey Hoffman, Robert Parker , Samuel T. Durrance and Ronald A. Parise .

STS-71-A

The STS-71-A mission with the space shuttle Atlantis should have brought the ASTRO-2 Spacelab mission into space on January 12, 1987. The flight was canceled after the Challenger disaster. The team would have consisted of Jon McBride, Richard Richards, David Leestma, Jeffrey Hoffman, Robert Parker, payload specialist Kenneth Nordsieck and one of the two other payload specialists Samuel Durrance and Ronald Parise.

STS-35

On December 2, 1990, Hoffman started as a mission specialist with the space shuttle Columbia into space . 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 pads, ready for take-off. 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. 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.

STS-46

Hoffman took off on the Space Shuttle Atlantis on July 31, 1992 for the STS-46 mission . During the eight-day flight, the EURECA satellite was suspended and tests were carried out with the Tethered Satellite System (TSS).

STS-61

Hoffman at the third EVA during STS-61

Hoffman flew into space for the fourth time on December 2, 1993 as a mission specialist on the space shuttle Endeavor . It was the Hubble Space Telescope's (HST) first repair mission . The main mirror of the observatory, which had started three and a half years earlier, was faulty, which led to blurred images. Hoffman participated in three of the five EVAs required to install the Corrective Instrument COSTAR and WF / PC-II cameras. In addition, the solar panels used to power the HST were replaced.

STS-75

On February 22, 1996, Hoffman started as a mission specialist on the space shuttle Columbia for his final mission into space. The main tasks of the mission were the relaunch of a tethered satellite system (TSS) and experiments with the United States Microgravity Payload (USMP-3). TSS successfully demonstrated the possibilities of producing electricity with a tensioned cable. The TSS experiment provided valuable results before the cable, which had been extended for more than 19 km, broke.

According to NASA

In July 1997, Hoffman resigned from the astronaut program and became NASA's European representative in Paris . There he was responsible for coordinating the space projects in the USA and Europe. From August 2001 he moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as professor of aerospace . Since 2005, Hoffman has served as a senior fellow for the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium in MIT's aerospace division.

Private

Jeffrey Hoffman is married with two children. Hoffman was the first American Jewish astronaut. On his journeys into space, he carried Jewish objects with him, such as a small Hanukkah chandelier. In 1996, on his last flight, he took a Torah aboard the Columbia Space Shuttle.

See also

Web links

Commons : Jeffrey A. Hoffman  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sheet of postage stamps shows first Torah in space. Israelnetz.de , November 27, 2019, accessed on December 28, 2019 .