Ronald McNair

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Ronald McNair
Ronald McNair
Country: United States
Organization: NASA
selected on January 16, 1978
(8th NASA Group)
Calls: 1, plus STS-51-L
Start of the
first space flight: 		3rd February 1984
Landing of the
last space flight: 		February 11, 1984
Time in space: 7d 23h 15m
retired on January 1986 (accident)
Space flights

Ronald Erwin "Ron" McNair (born October 21, 1950 in Lake City , Florence County , South Carolina , † January 28, 1986 in Cape Canaveral , Florida ) was an American astronaut who was killed in the Challenger disaster .

Life

McNair attended Carver High School in his birthplace until 1967, before he accepted a scholarship to study physics at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University , graduating in 1971 with a bachelor's degree and magna-cum-laude praise. He went to the well-known Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was writing his doctoral thesis. He received his doctorate in physics in 1976.

After graduating from MIT, he was employed as a physicist at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.

In 1978 McNair was selected for the NASA space program and had his first assignment as a mission specialist with the Challenger mission in February 1984.

For the Challenger Mission STS-51-L , he was again designated as a mission specialist. 73 seconds after take-off, the Challenger burst into a giant ball of fire. McNair and the other crew members were killed when the space shuttle hit the surface of the ocean (with an impact deceleration of 20 g ).

During his last flight there was to be a world premiere:

In 1986 the French musician Jean Michel Jarre was invited by the US state of Texas and the US space agency NASA to a concert in Houston . The occasion was the 150th anniversary of Texas and the 25th anniversary of NASA. Jarre recorded the album Rendez-vous especially for this concert . The astronaut Bruce McCandless gave Jarre the idea to have one of Ron McNair's pieces recorded on the saxophone on the Challenger mission STS-51-L . McNair was an avid saxophonist and it was planned that he would play a piece he had co-written in space. This should be the first piece of music recorded in space. The video that was shot in the process should be played on a large video wall during the concert. After Ron McNair's death, Jarre wanted to cancel the concert. Bruce McCandless and other NASA astronauts persuaded Jarre to hold the concert anyway. Rendez-vous Houston - A City In Concert took place and was dedicated by Jarre to the deceased Challenger astronauts. Jarre dedicated the title Last Rendez Vous / Dernier Rendez Vous "Ron's Piece" to McNair on his 1986 album Rendez-Vous .

After his death, a moon crater and the asteroid (3354) McNair were named after him. The federal authority for education named a support program for students with learning disabilities after him. There is a Ronald McNair math and science center at Francis Marion University in Florence , South Carolina that is Dr. Ronald E. McNair Academic High School in Jersey City and a St. Louis elementary school named after him. There is a memorial to Ronald McNair in Brooklyn , New York , NY . The Ronald E. McNair Space Theater was named in his honor at Davis Planetarium in downtown Jackson , Mississippi .

McNair was played by Joe Morton in the controversial TV film Challenger , which was produced against the wishes of the families of the victims of the disaster.

Web links

Commons : Ronald McNair  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
personal data
SURNAME McNair, Ronald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES McNair, Ronald Erwin; McNair, Ron
SHORT DESCRIPTION American astronaut
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Lake City , Florence County , South Carolina , United States
DATE OF DEATH January 28, 1986
Place of death near Cape Canaveral , Florida , United States