Ronald J. Grave

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Ronald grave
Ronald grave
Country: United States
Organization: NASA
selected on May 19, 1980
( 9th NASA Group )
Calls: 4 space flights
Start of the
first space flight: 		3rd October 1985
Landing of the
last space flight: 		July 1, 1993
Time in space: 26d 3h 38min
retired on April 11, 1994
Space flights

Ronald John Grabe (born June 13, 1945 in New York City , New York State , USA ) is a retired American astronaut .

Life

After Grabe had successfully completed Stuyvesant High School in New York in 1962, he studied at the United States Air Force Academy . There he received a bachelor's degree in engineering in 1966 . He then visited the Technical University in Darmstadt as part of a student exchange , where he studied aeronautical engineering until 1967 .

After returning to the United States, Grabe joined the US Air Force and completed his pilot training at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas. He then moved to Cannon Air Force Base in Arizona, where he flew the North American F-100 fighter aircraft . In addition, Grabe was involved in testing the weapon systems of the General Dynamics F-111 . During his time at Cannon Air Force Base, he was briefly ordered to Vietnam in 1969 to participate in numerous combat flights during the Vietnam War .

In 1974 Grabe began training as a test pilot , which he successfully completed a year later. He then worked on the further development of the Vought A-7 and F-111. From 1976 he took part in an exchange with the Royal Air Force for three years , during which he worked, among other things, as a test pilot of the vertical take-off aircraft Harrier . At the time of his appointment as an astronaut, he was serving as an instructor for test pilots at Edwards Air Force Base , California.

When Grabe retired from the Air Force in 1994, he held the rank of Colonel and gained over 5,500 hours of flight experience.

Astronaut activity

Grabe came to Houston in August 1981 to train as a shuttle pilot at NASA's Johnson Space Center . From 1983 to 1985 he was also the deputy manager responsible for coordinating the work processes in the space shuttle program. After the disaster of the Challenger space shuttle in 1986, he worked on the commission of inquiry. From 1989 to 1991 he worked as a senior astronaut on the design of the International Space Station (ISS). Later he was responsible for training space travelers in the astronauts office.

STS-51-J

On his first mission, Grabe took off on October 3, 1985, piloting a secret flight for the US Department of Defense . It was the first use of the new space shuttle Atlantis. The four-day flight served to deploy two military communications satellites of the type DSCS III .

STS-61-G

Originally, Grabe and four other astronauts were supposed to launch the space probe Galileo from the orbiter Atlantis into space in August 1986 . After the loss of the Challenger, the STS-61-G mission was canceled, so that Galileo was only launched four years later and Grabe was reassigned to another flight. In addition to Pilot Grabe, David Walker and the mission specialists Norman Thagard and James van Hoften were planned as a crew.

STS-30

Grave's second mission began on May 4, 1989 with the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis. A short time later, the crew successfully deployed the Venus probe Magellan , which was the first time a planetary probe was launched from the shuttle. During the further course of the four-day flight, the five astronauts devoted themselves to several scientific experiments that were carried out in the crew cabin.

STS-42

From January 22, 1992 Grabe flew into space for the first time as commander with the space shuttle Columbia. The main task of the mission was to operate the International Microgravity Laboratory-1 . For this purpose, there were over 50 experiments in the European Spacelab module that investigated the effect of weightlessness on organisms and other materials. Grave's crew, of which Ulf Merbold was also a German, worked in shifts in order to obtain as much data as possible during the eight-day flight.

STS-57

Grave's last mission began on June 21, 1993 when he took off as commander on the space shuttle Endeavor. Three days later, he and his crew of six successfully captured the European research platform EURECA with the help of the robotic arm , and then brought it back to Earth. The crew spent most of the time with the 22 experiments in the Spacehab module, which was used for the first time on this flight. In addition, two astronauts made a space exit to test techniques for future spacecraft missions.

Summary of space flights

No. mission function Flight date Flight duration
1 STS-51-J pilot October 3 - October 7, 1985 4d 1h 44min
2 STS-30 pilot May 4th - May 8th 1989 4d 0h 56min
3 STS-42 commander January 22 - January 30, 1992 8d 1h 14min
4th STS-57 commander June 21 - July 1, 1993 9d 23h 44min

According to NASA

On April 11, 1994, Grabe left NASA and the US Air Force and joined the space company Orbital Sciences Corporation . There he held various positions before he was promoted to deputy chairman of the board and managing director of the company's launcher division in 1999.

Private

Ronald Grabe is married and has three children. In his spare time, Grabe enjoys windsurfing, skiing and playing racket sports.

See also

Web links

Commons : Ronald J. Grabe  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Grabe, Ronald J.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dig, Ronald John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronaut
DATE OF BIRTH June 13, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York, USA