David Walker, Space Shuttle astronaut, born 1944

David Walker, born May 20, 1944 in Columbus, Georgia, is a veteran of four space shuttle flights.

His first flight was aboard Discovery (STS-51-A) as pilot in November 1984.  The flight recovered two satellites.

His second flight was aboard Atlantis (STS-30) as commander in May 1989.  The primary objective of the mission was to deploy the Magellan spacecraft to Venus.

His third flight was aboard Discovery (STS-53) as commander in December 1992.  It was a mission dedicated to the US Department of Defense.

His fourth and final flight was aboard Endeavour (STS-69) as commander in September 1995.  It was the second flight of the Wake Shield Facility.

He passed away from cancer in April 2001.

Happy birthday, Space Shuttle Kenneth Reightler!

Kenneth Reightler, born March 24, 1951 in Patuxent River, Maryland, has been to space twice.

His first trip into space was aboard Discovery (STS-48) as pilot in September 1991.  The mission's main goal was to deploy the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite.

His second and final trip was aboard Discovery (STS-60) again as pilot in February 1994.  The mission carried the first cosmonaut, Sergei Krikalev, to fly aboard a Space Shuttle.  The flight carried the Wake Shield Facilty into space.

Endeavour (STS-69) launched 1995

STS-69 crew

Seated (L-R): Kenneth Cockrell, David Walker; 

Standing (L-R): Michael Gernhardt, James Newman, James Voss

Mission patch

Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-69) launched September 7, 1995 for the 100th successful manned spaceflight for NASA.  Its crew consisted of Commander David Walker, Pilot Kenneth Cockrell, James Voss, James Newman, and Michael Gernhardt.

It was also the second flight of the Wake Shield Facility.  Other experiments investigated bone loss during space flights, monitoring and measuring long-term variations in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) from the sun and tested assembly techniques for the International Space Station.

They returned to Earth September 18.

Discovery (STS-60) launched 1994

 

Clockwise from bottom left:  Kenneth Reightler, Franklin Chang-Diaz, Ronald Sega, Sergei Krikalev,  Jan Davis, Charles Bolden

Mission patch

The first mission of the US/Russian Shuttle-Mir program, Discovery (STS-60) was launched February 3, 1994.  Her crew consisted of Commander Charles Bolden Jr., Pilot Kenneth Reightler, Jr., Mission Specialist Jan Davis, Mission Specialist Ronald Sega, Mission Specialist Franklin Chang Diaz and Mission Specialist Sergei Krikalev, the first cosmonaut to fly on a U.S. Space Shuttle.

Several attempts were made to deploy the Wake Shield Facility, an experimental science platform, but problems arose each time.  It was finally deployed on a later space shuttle mission.

On February 7, Good Morning America performed a video hookup between Discovery (over the Pacific Ocean) and the three cosmonauts on Mir (over the southern United States).

Discovery returned to Earth February 11.