NASA Experience
Selected by NASA in June 1987, Reightler began a year of astronaut candidate training and became an astronaut in August 1988.
From September 12–18, 1991, he was the pilot on the crew of STS-48. This was the first Space Shuttle flight in support of "Mission to Planet Earth." During the five-day mission, the crew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery successfully deployed the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), designed to provide scientists with their first complete data set on the upper atmosphere's chemistry, winds and energy inputs. The crew also conducted numerous secondary experiments ranging from growing protein crystals, to studying how fluids and structures react in weightlessness. After 81 orbits of the Earth, Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
More recently, Reightler served as pilot on STS-60, the first joint U.S./Russian Space Shuttle Mission. Launching from the Kennedy Space Center on February 3, 1994, STS-60 was the first flight of the Wake Shield Facility (WSF-1) and the second flight of the SpaceHab (Spacehab-2). During the eight-day flight, the crew of Discovery, including Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, conducted a wide variety of biological, materials science, earth observation, and life science experiments. Following 130 orbits of the Earth, STS-60 landed at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on February 11, 1994.
With the completion of his second mission, Reightler has logged over 327 hours in space.
His technical assignments to date have included: Chief of the Astronaut Office Space Station Branch; Chief of the Astronaut Office Mission Support Branch; Lead Spacecraft Communicator (CAPCOM); Lead Astronaut for flight software development and computer systems; Flight Crew Operations Directorate representative to the Program Requirements Control Board; weather coordinator for Space Shuttle launches and landings; Astronaut Office representative in the areas of ascent, entry, and aborts.
Read more about this topic: Kenneth S. Reightler, Jr.
Famous quotes containing the words nasa and/or experience:
“If we did not have such a thing as an airplane today, we would probably create something the size of NASA to make one.”
—H. Ross Perot (b. 1930)
“Young men are as apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are to think themselves sober enough. They look upon spirit to be a much better thing than experience, which they call coldness. They are but half mistaken; for though spirit without experience is dangerous, experience without spirit is languid and defective.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)