Richard N. Richards
| Richard Richards | |
|---|---|
|
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| Country: | United States |
| Organization: | NASA |
| selected on | May 19, 1980 ( 9th NASA Group ) |
| Calls: | 4 space flights |
| Start of the first space flight: |
August 8, 1989 |
| Landing of the last space flight: |
September 20, 1994 |
| Time in space: | 33d 21h 29min |
| retired on | April 1995 |
| Space flights | |
Richard Noel "Dick" Richards (born August 24, 1946 in Key West , Florida state , USA ) is a former American astronaut .
education
Richards received a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Missouri in 1969 and a master's degree in aerospace engineering from the University of West Florida in 1970 .
Military career
In 1969, Richards joined the United States Navy and was trained as a naval aviator. From 1970 he was stationed at the Norfolk Naval Air Station in Virginia and from 1973 on the aircraft carriers USS America and USS Saratoga in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean. In 1976 he joined the US Naval Test Pilot School in Maryland. After his training there, he worked as a test pilot for the next three and a half years, mainly in the field of automatic landings on aircraft carriers.
Astronaut activity
After an unsuccessful application for the eighth astronaut group, Richards was selected in May 1980 by NASA as an astronaut candidate with the ninth group. In April 1995, Richards left the astronaut office and moved to the space shuttle program office at the Johnson Space Center . There he was mission manager for the second maintenance mission for the Hubble Space Telescope ( STS-82 ) and the second tethered satellite system mission ( STS-75 ). In 1997 he became manager of the Space Shuttle Program Integration, which included the daily operational planning of all shuttle missions. He also chaired the Flight Mission Management Team.
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 Richards, David Leestma , Jeffrey Hoffman , Robert Parker , Samuel Durrance and Ronald 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-28
On August 8, 1989, Richards flew into space for the first time on the Columbia space shuttle . STS-28 was a US Department of Defense flight with a secret payload.
STS-41
On October 6, 1990, Richards launched into space as commander of the space shuttle Discovery . During this mission, the heaviest payload to date, the Ulysses spacecraft , was launched. Ulysses is a joint project between NASA and ESA to research the sun .
STS-50
During the STS-50 mission , Richards was the commander of the Columbia space shuttle. The mission started on June 25, 1992. The primary payload was the USML-1 microgravity laboratory, a manned Spacelab module. Numerous experiments have been conducted to study the crystal growth of zeolite , surface tension physics, and human physiology.
STS-64
Richards made his fourth flight in September 1994 as the commander of the space shuttle Discovery . The LITE laser-optical radar system was tested as part of STS-64 . Another task was the deployment and recovery of the astronomical research satellite SPARTAN-201 , a free-flying satellite for researching the solar wind and the solar corona . After eleven days in space, he landed on September 20, 1994 at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
According to NASA
In August 1998, Richards left NASA and moved to Boeing's space shuttle division . In 2007, Richards retired from Boeing.
See also
Web links
- Short biography of Richard N. Richards at spacefacts.de
- NASA biography of Richard N. Richards (English; PDF)
- Biography of Richard N. Richards in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Richards, Richard N. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Richards, Richard Noel; Richards, Dick (nickname) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American astronaut |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 24, 1946 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Key West , Florida, USA |