Richard "Mike" Mullane, born September 10, 1945 in Wichita Falls, Texas, is a veteran of three space shuttle flights and has spent over 2 weeks in space. As a colonel in the Air Force, he flew combat missions in the Vietnam War in 1969. He was chosen by NASA to become an astronaut in 1978.
His first mission was aboard Discovery (STS-41-D) as mission specialist in August-September 1984. During this flight, three commercial communications satellites were deployed.
His second flight was aboard Atlantis (STS-27) as mission specialist in December 1988. During lift-off, the heat shield was damaged and impacted the right wing. They managed to complete the mission successfully and land on December 6 without incident. However, this same scenario proved fatal for the crew of Columbia 15 years later.
Mullane's third and final flight was aboard Atlantis (STS-36) as mission specialist February-March 1990. It carried a classified payload for the Department of Defense, like his previous mission.
After retiring from NASA, he wrote a book, Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut, which describes his experiences as a space shuttle astronaut.
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