Story Musgrave


Franklin Story Musgrave, M.D. is an American physician and a retired NASA astronaut. He is a public speaker and consultant to both Disney's Imagineering group and Applied Minds in California. In 1996 he became only the second astronaut to fly on six spaceflights, and he is the most formally educated astronaut with six academic degrees. Musgrave is the only astronaut to fly aboard all five Space Shuttles.

Personal life

Musgrave was born August 19, 1935, and grew up in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, but considers Lexington, Kentucky, to be his hometown. He is the son of Marguerite and Percy Musgrave. He has seven children, one of whom is deceased. His hobbies are chess, flying, gardening, literary criticism, poetry, microcomputers, parachuting, photography, reading, running, scuba diving, and soaring.
In the early 1990s, Musgrave was stalked by Margaret Mary Ray, a schizophrenic woman who had previously served time for stalking comedian David Letterman.

Education

Musgrave attended Dexter School in Brookline, Massachusetts and St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts from 1947 to 1953. He dropped out of St. Mark's in his senior year when a car accident "caused him to miss a substantial amount of vital pre-graduation exam schooling."
While serving in the Marines, he completed his GED. Following his discharge, Musgrave received a B.S. in mathematics and statistics from Syracuse University in 1958. He went on to receive an M.B.A. in operations analysis and computer programming from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1959, a B.A. in chemistry from Marietta College in 1960, an M.D. degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1964, an M.S. in physiology and biophysics from the University of Kentucky in 1966, and a M.A. in literature from the University of Houston–Clear Lake in 1987.

Military and aeronautical careers

After leaving school, Musgrave enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1953. He served as an aviation electrician, instrument technician and aircraft crew chief while completing duty assignments in Korea, Japan and Hawaii, and aboard the carrier in the Far East. Musgrave's aviator brother Percy, who also served on USS Wasp, died on a mission when the carrier "ran over him" after a takeoff crash.
Although he did not qualify as a pilot until completing his stipulated astronaut training, Musgrave has flown 17,700 hours in 160 different types of civilian and military aircraft, including 7,500 hours in jet aircraft. He has earned FAA ratings for instructor, instrument instructor, glider instructor, and airline transport pilot in addition to astronaut wings. An accomplished parachutist, he has made more than 800 free falls, including over 100 experimental free-fall descents involved with the study of human aerodynamics.

Medical and scientific careers

Following his graduation from Syracuse University, Musgrave was briefly employed as a mathematician and operations analyst by the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York in 1958.
Upon completing his medical doctorate, he served a surgical internship at the University of Kentucky Medical Center from 1964 to 1965. He continued there as a United States Air Force postdoctoral fellow, working in aerospace medicine and physiology, and as a National Heart Institute postdoctoral fellow, teaching and researching cardiovascular and exercise physiology. From 1967 to 1989, he practiced clinical medicine on a part-time basis at Denver General Hospital and served as an adjunct instructor of physiology and biophysics at the University of Kentucky Medical Center.
He has written or been listed as a co-author of twenty five scientific papers in the areas of aerospace medicine and physiology, temperature regulation, exercise physiology, and clinical surgery.

NASA career

Musgrave was selected as a scientist-astronaut by NASA in August 1967 as a member of NASA Astronaut Group 6. After completing flight and academic training, he worked on the design and development of the Skylab Program. In 1973, he was the backup Science Pilot for Skylab 2, becoming the first Group 6 astronaut to receive a potential flight assignment.
Musgrave participated in the design and development of all Space Shuttle extra-vehicular activity equipment, including spacesuits, life support systems, airlocks and Manned Maneuvering Units. From 1979 to 1982, and 1983 to 1984, he was assigned as a test and verification pilot in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory at JSC.
Musgrave served as a CAPCOM for the second and third Skylab missions, STS-31, STS-35, STS-36, STS-38 and STS-41. He was a Mission Specialist on STS-6, STS-51-F/Spacelab-2, STS-33, STS-44, and STS-80 ; and the Payload Commander on STS-61.
A veteran of six space flights, Musgrave has spent a total of 1,281 hours, 59 minutes, 22 seconds on space missions, including nearly 27 hours of EVA.
Musgrave is the only astronaut to have flown on all five Space Shuttles. Prior to John Glenn's return to space in 1998, Musgrave held the record for the oldest person in orbit, at age 61.
He retired from NASA in 1997.

Spaceflight experience

STS-6

He first flew on STS-6, which launched from the Kennedy Space Center, on April 4, 1983, and landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California, on April 9, 1983. During this maiden voyage of Space Shuttle Challenger, the crew performed the first Shuttle deployment of an IUS/TDRS satellite, and Musgrave and Don Peterson conducted the first Space Shuttle extra-vehicular activity to test the new space suits and construction and repair devices and procedures. Mission duration was 5 days, 23 minutes, 42 seconds.

STS-51-F

On STS-51-F/Spacelab-2, the crew aboard Challenger launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 29 July 1985, and landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on 6 August 1985. This flight was the first pallet-only Spacelab mission, and the first mission to operate the Spacelab Instrument Pointing System. It carried 13 major experiments in astronomy, astrophysics, and life sciences. During this mission, Musgrave served as the systems engineer during launch and entry, and as a pilot during the orbital operations. Mission duration was 7 days, 22 hours, 45 minutes, 26 seconds.

STS-33

On STS-33, he served aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, which launched at night from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 22 November 1989. This classified mission operated payloads for the United States Department of Defense. Following 79 orbits, the mission concluded on 27 November 1989, with a landing at sunset on Runway 04 at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Mission duration was 5 days, 7 minutes, 32 seconds.
, prepares to be elevated to the top of the Hubble Space Telescope to install protective covers on the magnetometers as part of STS-61

STS-44

also launched at night on 24 November 1991. The primary mission objective was accomplished with the successful deployment of a Defense Support Program satellite with an Inertial Upper Stage rocket booster. In addition the crew also conducted two Military Man in Space Experiments, three radiation monitoring experiments, and numerous medical tests to support longer duration Shuttle flights. The mission was concluded in 110 orbits of the Earth with Atlantis returning to a landing on the lakebed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on 1 December 1991. Mission duration was 6 days, 22 hours, 50 minutes, 42 seconds.

STS-61

was the first Hubble Space Telescope servicing and repair mission. Following a night launch from Kennedy Space Center on 2 December 1993, Endeavour rendezvoused with and captured the HST. During this 11-day flight, the HST was restored to its full capabilities through the work of two pairs of astronauts during a record 5 spacewalks. Musgrave performed 3 of these spacewalks. After having travelled 4,433,772 miles in 163 orbits of the Earth, Endeavour returned to a night landing in Florida on 13 December 1993. Mission duration was 10 days, 19 hours, 59 minutes.

STS-80

On STS-80,, the crew aboard Space Shuttle Columbia deployed and retrieved the Wake Shield Facility and the Orbiting Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer satellites. The free-flying WSF created a super vacuum in its wake in which to grow thin film wafers for use in semiconductors and the electronics industry. The ORFEUS instruments, mounted on the reusable Shuttle Pallet Satellite, studied the origin and makeup of stars.
During deorbit and landing, Musgrave stood in the cockpit and pointed a handheld video camera out the windows. In doing so, he recorded the plasma streams over the orbiter's hull for the first time, and he is still the only astronaut to see them first-hand. In completing this mission he logged a record 278 Earth orbits and traveled over 7 million miles in 17 days, 15 hours, 53 minutes.

Organizations

He is a member of Phi Delta Theta, Alpha Kappa Psi, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Beta Gamma Sigma, the Civil Aviation Medical Association, the Flying Physicians Association, the International Academy of Astronautics, the Marine Corps Aviation Association, the National Aeronautic Association, the National Aerospace Education Council, the National Geographic Society, the Navy League, the New York Academy of Sciences, Omicron Delta Kappa, the Soaring Club of Houston, the Soaring Society of America and the United States Parachute Association.

Awards and honors



Musgrave has made cameo appearances on several documentary TV programs, as well as the movie Mission to Mars as "3rd CAPCOM" and the TV show Home Improvement by Touchstone Television. In 2012, he appeared at Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention, as the "Astronaut Guest of Honor."

Quotes