Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut Marsha Ivins!

Marsha Ivins, born April 15, 1951 in Baltimore, Maryland, is a veteran of five space shuttle flights.

Her first flight was aboard Columbia (STS-32) as mission specialist in January 1990, the first mission of the 1990s.

Her second flight was aboard Atlantis (STS-46) as mission specialist in July-August 1992.  One of the objectives of the mission was to deploy the NASA/Italian Space Agency joint project, the Tethered Satellite System (TSS).

Her third flight was aboard Atlantis (STS-62) as mission specialist in March 1994.  During the mission, she spoke with students at Bronx High School of Science, who asked her questions about experiments being conducted in space.

Her fourth flight was aboard Atlantis (STS-81) as mission specialist in January 1997 to the space station Mir.  It was the fifth space shuttle mission mission to Mir.

Her fifth and final flight was aboard Atlantis (STS-98) as mission specialist to the International Space Station in February 2001.  The crew delivered the Destiny Laboratory Module to the ISS.

Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut Loren Shriver!

Loren Shriver, born September 23, 1944 in Jefferson, Iowa, is a veteran of three space shuttle flights.  From 1969 to 1973 he was an academic pilot instructor at Vance Air Force Base over here in Enid, Oklahoma.

His first mission into space was aboard Discovery (STS-51-C) as pilot in January 1985.  It was the first space shuttle flight to carry a classified payload for the Dept. of Defense.

His second flight was aboard Discovery (STS-31) as commander in April 1990.  This mission deployed the Hubble Space Telescope.

Shriver's third and final flight was on Atlantis (STS-46) as commander in July-August 1992.  The mission deployed the Italian Space Agency's Tethered Satellite Relay System and the European Space Agency's European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA).

Shriver is also a retired US Air Force Colonel.

Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut Andrew Allen!

Andrew Allen, born August 4, 1955 in Richboro, Pennsylvania, is a veteran of three space shuttle missions.  He obtained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the US Marine Corps.

His first flight was aboard Atlantis (STS-46) as pilot in July-August 1992. The mission deployed the Eruopean Space Agency's European Retrievable Carrier and the Tethered Satellite System, a joint project between NASA and the Italian Space Agency.

His second flight was as pilot on Columbia (STS-62) in March 1994 with fellow astronaut/birthday twin Charles Gemar.

His third and final flight was aboard Columbia (STS-75) as commander in February-March 1996. The mission was a reflight of the Tethered Satellite System.

Allen has spent 37 days, 16 hours in space.

Happy birthday, Italian astronaut Franco Malerba!

Franco Malerba, born October 10, 1945, went into space aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-46) as payload specialist in July-August 1992.  He is the first Italian citizen in space.  He was part of the Tethered Satellite System project, which was a joint effort between NASA and the Italian Space Agency.  However the satellite could not be deployed due to a tangled tether line and the project was scrubbed until STS-75 in 1996.

Happy birthday, Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier!

Claude Nicollier, born September 2, 1944, is a veteran of four space shuttle flights and Switzerland's first astronaut.

His historic first flight was aboard Atlantis (STS-46) as mission specialist in July 1992.  The mission's main objectives were to deploy the ESA's European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) and the joint project between NASA and the Italian Space Agency, the Tethered Satellite System (TSS).

His second mission was aboard Endeavour (STS-61) as mission specialist in December 1993.  Nicollier used Endeavour's robotic arm to capture and re-deploy the Hubble Space Telescope.

His third flight was on Columbia (STS-75) as mission specialist February-March 1996.  The mission's main objective was to deploy another tethered satellite TSS-1R, a 'reflight' from STS-46.

Nicollier's fourth and final flight was aboard Discovery (STS-103) in December 1999, another servicing trip to the Hubble Telescope.  Nicollier performed an EVA as part of the maintenance and repair of the Hubble.

Happy birthday, space shuttle astronaut Dr. Franklin Chang- Díaz!

I've written about Dr. Franklin Chang Diaz several times before since he has achieved a number of firsts for astronauts.  Born April 5, 1950 in San Jose, Costa Rica, he became an American citizen in 1977 and was selected as an astronaut in 1980.

He is the first Hispanic American astronaut and the third Latin American in space.  His grandfather fled China during the Boxer Rebellion, so Chang Diaz has Chinese ancestry as well.  He is tied with Jerry Ross for the most space shuttle missions, at seven:

STS-61-C
STS-34
STS-46
STS-60
STS-75
STS-91
STS-111

He was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame May 5, 2012.

Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman!

Jeffrey Alan Hoffman, born November 2, 1944 in Brooklyn, New York, is a veteran of 5 space shuttle flights and is the first Jewish astronaut from the United States. 

His first flight was aboard Discovery (STS-51-D) in April 1985, as mission specialist.  Discovery landed at Kennedy Space Center but suffered major brake damage and blew out a tire so future shuttle flights had to land at Edwards Air Force Base until NASA could improve the brake assembly and make it safer.

His second mission was aboard Columbia (STS-35) in December 1990 also as mission specialist.  He and fellow astronaut Sam Durrance conducted the first Space Classroom Program, designed to get children interested in math and science.

His third mission was on Atlantis (STS-46) in July-August 1992.  He flew with the first Italian citizen in space, Franco Malerba. 

His fourth flight was the first servicing mission to the Hubble Telescope, on Endeavour (STS-61) in December 1993.  Launched 3 1/2 years previously, the Hubble Telescope had a "spherical abberation" that distorted images and rendered most of its data unuseable.

Hoffman's fifth and final flight was back on Columbia (STS-75) February-March 1996.  He flew with two more Italian astronauts, Maurizio Cheli and Umberto Guidoni.