A Payload Specialist (PS) is an individual selected and trained by commercial or research organizations for flights of a specific payload on a NASA Space Shuttle mission. People assigned as Payload Specialists included individuals selected by the research community, a company or consortium flying a commercial payload aboard the spacecraft, and non-NASA astronauts designated by international partners.
The term refers to both the individual and to the position on the Shuttle crew.
Read more about Payload Specialist: History, Alternate and Back-up (not Flown) Payload Specialists
Famous quotes containing the word specialist:
“... to a specialist his specialty is the whole of everything and if his specialty is in good order and it generally is then everything must be succeeding.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)