Abstract
Between August 2 and November 21, 1977, the astronaut applicants were subjected to tests, interviews, evaluations and careful scrutiny at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in order to assess their eligibility as astronaut candidates. Of the 128 applying for the newly-created role of Mission Specialist (MS), 21 were women. In all, 208 applicants came to Houston, in ten groups, for their week of medical and psychological testing, as well as facing a selection panel armed with probing, analytical questions both personal and technical.
“Step past our places of comfort,
to walk over to the edge of our abilities
and then move beyond that edge.
The unknown is mysterious.
The unknown is frightening.
But you can only become a winner
if you are willing to walk over to the edge
and dangle over it just a little bit.”
Ronald E. McNair, STS-41B post-flight lecture at MIT, 1984.
From Ronald McNair, Astronaut, by Corinne Naden
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Notes
- 1.
When he flew STS-51C in 1985, Buchli became, by definition, the first submariner in space due his short-term service on a submarine while at the U.S. Naval Academy. However, Michael J. McCulley (NASA Class of 1984, Group 10) is recognized everywhere as the first qualified submariner in space when he flew on STS-34 in 1989, with Stephen Bowen (NASA Class of 2000, Group 18) becoming the second by flying STS-126 in 2008.
- 2.
The six, in order of first MMU flight were: Bruce McCandless, Bob Stewart, Pinky Nelson, Ox van Hoften, Joe Allen and Dale Gardner (Group 8 astronauts in italics).
References
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Sarah K. Satullo, online article, “Lehigh University professor says his path to becoming a NASA astronaut ‘all serendipity’,” 13 March 2014, online at: http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf/2014/03/retired_nasa_astronaut_and_leh.html].
Jeffrey A. Hoffman, NASA Oral History, April 2, 2009.
“An Astronaut’s Hunger,” unaccredited article, San Francisco Chronicle, issue 24 August 1979, p. 17.
Challenger daughter’s journey to know her hero dad, Tom Patterson, CNN, June 16, 2012.
The Physics of Karate, Michael S. Feld, Ronald E. McNair and Stephen R. Wilk, Scientific American, Vol. 240, No. 4, April 1979, pp. 150−161.
George D. Nelson, NASA Oral History, May 6, 2004.
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Additional biographical data from U.S. Army Career Brief, undated but circa 1984, on File, AIS Archives.
Reference 11, p. 754.
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Shayler, D.J., Burgess, C. (2020). The first Mission Specialists. In: NASA's First Space Shuttle Astronaut Selection. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45742-6_4
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