Happy birthday, astronaut Jeffrey Ashby!

Jeffrey Ashby, born June 16, 1954 in Dallas, Texas, has been into space three times.  He served in the navy, flying combat missions in Operation Desert Storm, Operation Southern Watch, and Operation Continue Hope.

His first space flight was aboard Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-93) as pilot in July 1999. He returned to Earth after almost 4 days in space.

His second mission was aboard Endeavour (STS-100) as pilot to the International Space Station in April-May 2001. He returned to Earth after almost 12 days.

His third and final mission was aboard Atlantis (STS-112) as commander to the International Space Station in October 2002.  He returned to Earth after almost 11 days in space.

Endeavour (STS-100) launched 2001

STS-100 crew

Front row (L-R): Yury Lonchakov, Ken Rominger, Umberto Guidoni, Jeffrey Ashby, John Phillips

Back row (L-R): Scott Parazynski, Chris Hadfield

Mission patch

Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-100), launched April 19, 2001, installed the Canadarm2 robotic arm on the International Space Station.  Its crew consisted of Commander Kent Rominger, Pilot Jeffrey Ashby, Chris Hadfield (CSA), John Phillips, Scott Parazynski, Umberto Guidoni (ESA), and Yury Lonchakov (Roscosmos).  

Parazynski and Hadfield conducted two EVAs for almost 15 hours.  

The crew returned to Earth May 1, 2001.

Columbia (STS-93) launched 1999

STS-93 crew (L-R): Eileen Collins, Steven Hawley, Jeffrey Ashby, Michel Tognini, Catherine Coleman.

STS-93 mission patch

Space Shuttle Columbia blasted off July 23, 1999 with the first female commander of any shuttle mission.  Its crew consisted of Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeffrey Ashby, Michel Tognini (Centre National d'etudes Spatiales, CNES), Steven Hawley and Catherine Coleman.

The mission's primary objective was to deploy the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the most sophisticated of its kind ever built.

After this flight, Columbia went out of service for upgrading and did not fly again until 2002 (STS-109).

The crew returned to Earth July 28.

Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-112) launched 2002

Sandra Magnus, David Wolf, Pamela Melroy, Jeffrey Ashby, Peirs Sellers, Fydor Yurchikhin

Space Shuttle Atlantis took off from Kennedy Space Center  October 7, 2002 on mission STS-112.  Her crew consisted of Commander Jeffrey Ashby, Pilot Pamela Melroy, Mission Specialist 1 Piers Sellers, Mission Specialist 2 Sandra Magnus, Mission Specialist 3 David Wolf, and Mission Specialist Fyodor Yurchikhin.

During the launch, a chunk of foam broke off the external tank and created a 4"x3" dent in an attachment to one of the solid booster rocket.  Despite realizing the dangers of such an incident, NASA decided to continue with launches as scheduled.  Endeavour's flight in November 2002 went without incident.  The next flight was STS-107, Columbia, which ended in disaster.

Pam Melroy's wake up call on Day 10 was Prime Time from Alan Parsons Project!  What a gal!