Richard Searfoss, Space Shuttle astronaut, born 1956

Richard Searfoss, born June 5, 1956 in Mount Clemens, Michigan, was a veteran of three space shuttle flights.

His first mission was aboard Columbia (STS-58) as pilot in October 1993.  He and fellow astronaut John Blaha communictated with school children via an on-board ham radio.

His second mission was aboard Atlantis (STS-76) as pilot to Mir in March 1996.  It was the third space shuttle mission to Mir.

His third and final flight was back on Columbia (STS-90) as commander in April-May 1998.  It was the last flight of the European Space Agency's Spacelab module.

He passed away in September 2018.

Columbia (STS-90) launched 1998

STS-90 crew

Front row (L-R): Scott Altman, Richard Searfoss

Last row (L-R): James Pawelczyk, Richard Linnehan, Kathryn Hire, Davydd Williams, Jay Buckey

Mission patch

Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-90), launched April 17, 1998, was the final flight of the European Space Agency's Spacelab laboratory module.  Its crew consisted of Commander Richard Searfoss, Pilot Scott Altman, Dafydd Williams (CSA), Kathryn Hire, Richard Linnehan, Jay Buckey and James Pawelczyk.

The mission continued the exploration of the effects of microgravity on the human nervous system.  The crew returned to Earth on May 3.

Atlantis (STS-76) launched 1996

STS-76 crew

Front row (L-R): Ronald Sega, Kevin Chilton, Richard Searfoss

Back row (L-R): Michael Clifford, Shannon Lucid, Linda Godwin

Mission patch

Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-76), launched March 22, 1996, was the third Shuttle mission to dock with the space station Mir.  Its crew consisted of Commander Kevin Chilton, Pilot Richard Searfoss, Ronald Sega, Michael Clifford, Linda Godwin and Shannon Lucid.

Godwin and Clifford performed a space walk on March 27 which lasted 6 hours.  Shannon Lucid stayed on board Mir as part of Expedition Mir EO-21.

The rest of the crew returned to Earth March 31.

Columbia (STS-58) launched 1993

Seated (L-R): David Wolf, Shannon Lucid, Rhea Seddon, Richard Searfoss; 

Standing (L-R): John Blaha, William McArthur, Martin Fettman

Mission patch

Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-58), launched October 18, 1993, used for the first time the Portable In-Flight Landing Operations Trainer (PILOT) simulation software.  Its crew consisted of Commander John Blaha, Pilot Richard Searfoss, Rhea Seddon, William McArthur, David Wolf, Shannon Lucid and Martin Fettman.

PILOT was tested to be used as a tool to help the mission commander and shuttle pilot maintain proficiency for approach and landing. 

During the mission, Rhea Seddon sent a message to her husband astronaut Robert Gibson when she surpassed his total time of almost 633 hours.  Gibson teased that he had more launches than she did at the time.