Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut Richard Richards!

Richard Richards, born August 24, 1946 in Key West, Florida, is a veteran of four space shuttle flights.

His first flight was aboard Columbia (STS-28) as pilot in August 1989.  The mission was dedicated to the Department of Defense.

His second flight was aboard Discovery (STS-41) as commander in October 1990.  The primary mission was the deployment of the Ulysses probe.

His third flight was aboard Columbia (STS-50) as commander in June-July 1992.  It was the first time the US Microgravity Laboratory was taken into orbit.

His fourth and final flight was aboard Discovery (STS-64) as commander in September 1994.  The mission saw the first untethered EVA in ten years.

Columbia (STS-83) launched 1997

STS-83 crew

Front row (L-R): Janice Voss, James Halsell, Susan Kilrain, Donald Thomas

Back row (L-R): Roger Crouch, Greg Linteris, Michael Gernhardt

Mission patch

Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-83), launched April 4, 1997, was originally scheduled to remain in space for over 15 days, but the mission was cut short when a problem with Fuel Cell #2 developed.  Its crew consisted of Commander James Halsell, Pilot Susan Kilrain, Janice Voss, Michael Gernhardt, Donald Thomas, Roger Crouch, and Greg Linteris.

The payload was the Microgravity Science Laboratory, but the crew returned to Earth after just 4 days.  The mission was flown again as STS-94.

Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut David Hilmers!

David Hilmers, born January 28, 1950 in Clinton, Iowa, is a veteran of four space flights.  He has a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Baylor College of Medicine.

Hilmers' first flight was aboard Atlantis (STS-51-J) as mission specialist in October 1985.  This was a Dept of Defense payload so everything was hush-hush.

His second flight was aboard Discovery (STS-26) as mission specialist in September-October 1988.  This was the "Return to Flight" mission, the first mission after the Challenger disaster in January 1986.

His third flight was aboard Atlantis (STS-36) as mission specialist in February-March 1990 on another Department of Defense mission.

His fourth and final flight was aboard Discovery (STS-42) as mission specialist in January 1992.  The crew carried the International Microgravity Laboaratory-1 into orbit.

Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut Kathryn Thornton!

Kathryn Thornton, born August 17, 1952 in Montgomery, Alabama is a veteran of four space shuttle flights.  She obtained her PhD in physics from the University of Virginia in 1979.

Her first flight was aboard Discovery (STS-33) as mission specialist in November 1989.  It carried a classified payload from the Department of Defense into space.

Her second flight was aboard Endeavour (STS-49) as mission specialist in May 1992.  It was the maiden voyage of the Endeavour.  She performed an EVA with fellow astronaut Thomas Akers which lasted 7 hours 44 minutes.

Her third flight was back on Endeavour (STS-61) as mission specialist in December 1993.  She and Akers performed two EVAs lasting over 13 hours total.

Her fourth and final mission was aboard Columbia (STS-73) as mission specialist in October-November 1995.  It was the second mission of the US Microgravity Laboratory which studied the effects of the microgravity environment in space.

Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut Lawrence DeLucas!

Lawrence DeLucas, born July 11, 1950, went into space aboard Columbia (STS-50) in June-July 1992 as a payload specialist.  In the two weeks of the mission, he and the rest of the crew conducted experiments with the United States Microgravity Laboratory-1 (USML-1) spacelab.

Happy birthday, Icelandic astronaut Bjarni Tryggvason!

Bjarni Tryggvason, born September 21, 1945 in Reykjavik, Iceland, is an astronaut with the Canadian Space Agency and went into space on the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-85) as payload specialist in August 1997.  Although born in Iceland, he grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia.

During the mission, his primary role was performing fluid dynamics experiments to examine sensitivity to spacecraft vibrations using the Microgravity Vibration Isolation Mount (MIM).  The experiments were to study the effects of vibrations on the experiments performed on the International Space Station.

Columbia (STS-50) launched 1992

STS-50 (L-R): Ellen Baker, Kenneth Bowersox, Bonnie Dunbar, Richard Richards, Carl Meade, Eugene Trinh, Lawrence DeLucas

Mission patch

Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-50), launched June 25, 1992, was the first flight of the U.S. Microgravity Laboratory and the first to land at Kennedy Space Center due to bad weather at Edwards caused by the remnants of Hurricane Darby.  Its crew consisted of Commander Richard Richards, Pilot Kenneth Bowersox, Bonnie Dunbar, Ellen Baker, Carl Meade, Lawrence DeLucas and Eugene Trinh (the first Vietnamese astronaut).