Rick Douglas Husband
| Rick Husband | |
|---|---|
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| Country: | United States |
| Organization: | NASA |
| selected on | December 8, 1994 ( 15th NASA Group ) |
| Calls: | 2 space flights |
| Start of the first space flight: |
May 27, 1999 |
| Landing of the last space flight: |
February 1, 2003 |
| Time in space: | 25d 17h 33m |
| retired on | February 1, 2003 (accident) |
| Space flights | |
Rick Douglas Husband (born July 12, 1957 in Amarillo , Texas , USA ; † February 1, 2003 over the southern United States) was an American astronaut and the commander of the crashed Columbia mission STS-107 .
biography
Husband was born in Texas. He attended Crockett Junior High School and graduated from Amarillo High School in 1975. He received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Texas Tech University in 1980 and his master's degree from California State University in Fresno in 1990 .
In the 1980s, Husband made a career as a pilot in the US Air Force , where he flew the F4 Phantom and the F15 Eagle . He finished his active service in the Air Force with the rank of colonel after he was selected by NASA for the US space program in 1994. There he worked on various theoretical programs, including some drafts for later missions to Mars .
On May 27, 1999, he flew into space for the first time as a pilot on the STS-96 Discovery mission . In preparation for the first crew of the International Space Station (ISS), four tons of supplies and components were brought to the space station.
Command of the Columbia
In December 2000, Husband was selected as the commander of the Columbia STS-107 flight . He and his six crew members took off on January 16, 2003, with a piece of foam separating from the outer tank during the ascent and hitting the port wing of the orbiter. The damage was noticed, but not classified as critical by NASA. When the shuttle returned to Earth on February 1, hot gases penetrated the wing through a damaged heat shield tile and melted it from the inside. The shuttle got out of hand and broke in the atmosphere . Rick Husband and the other crew members were killed. He left a wife and two children.
Awards
In addition to numerous posthumous honors, Husband was particularly honored by his hometown Amarillo (Texas): the local airport was renamed " Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport " in 2003. A bronze statue has been erected in front of the city's largest sports center, showing a husband in astronaut gear, helmet in right hand, while left arm is pointed towards the sky. Another spectacular memory of Husband and his unfortunate colleagues is the naming of a landscape on Mars . The Columbia Hills are a flat, approx. 5 km long and up to 3 km wide ridge within the large Gusev crater . They were discovered by the Spirit lander, which sank successfully in the crater in 2004. The highest hill was named after Husband. Furthermore, the asteroid (51823) Rickhusband in the main belt was named after him.
- NASA Space Flight Medal (posthumous)
- NASA Distinguished Service Medal
- Defense Distinguished Service Medal
- Congressional Space Medal of Honor
See also
- List of spacemen
- List of space shuttle missions
- List of manned space flights
- List of manned missions to the International Space Station
Web links
- Short biography of Rick Douglas Husband at spacefacts.de
- NASA biography of Rick Douglas Husband (English; PDF)
- Biography of Rick Douglas Husband in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Husband, Rick Douglas |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American astronaut and the commander of the crashed Columbia mission STS-107 |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 12, 1957 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Amarillo , Texas , USA |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 1, 2003 |
| Place of death | Southern usa |