Garriot

Personal: Male, Married, Four children. Born in Enid, Oklahoma, USA. Degree: PhD.

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: NASA Group 4 - 1965. Status: Inactive. Entered space service: 28 June 1965. Left space service: 1 August 1986. Number of Flights: 2. Total Time: 69.79 days. Number of EVAs: 3. Total EVA Time: 13.77 hours.

NAME: Owen K. Garriott (Ph.D.)
NASA Astronaut (former)

PERSONAL DATA: Born November 22, 1930, in Enid, Oklahoma. Married to Evelyn (Eve) L. Garriott from Huntsville, Al. He has four children from a previous marriage: Randall, Robert, Richard, and Linda. Recreational interests include skiing, sailing, scuba diving, and amateur radio.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Enid High School; received a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 1953, a master of science degree and a doctor of philosophy degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1957 and 1960, respectively; and presented an honorary doctor of philosophy degree in science from Phillips University (Enid, Oklahoma) in 1973.

ORGANIZATIONS: Fellow of the American Astronautical Society; Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; and member of the American Geophysical Union, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Tau Beta Pi, Sigma XI, the International Scientific Radio Union (URSI), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

SPECIAL HONORS: National Science Foundation Fellowship at Cambridge University and at the Radio Research Station at Slough, England, 1960-1961; the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1973; the City of Chicago Gold Medal in 1974, the Robert J. Collier Trophy for 1973 in 1974; the Federation Aeronautique Internationale's V. M. Komarov Diploma for 1973 in 1974; the Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial trophy for 1975; Education for Public Management Fellowship at Stanford University, 1975-1976; and elected to the International Academy of Astronautics in 1975. Recipient of NASA Space Flight Medal (1983).

EXPERIENCE: Garriott served as an electronics officer while on active duty with the United States Navy from 1953 to 1956, and was stationed aboard several U.S. destroyers at sea.

From 1961 until 1965, he taught electronics, electromagnetic theory, and ionospheric physics as an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He has performed research in ionospheric physics since obtaining his doctorate and has authored or co-authored more than 40 scientific papers and one book on this subject.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Dr. Garriott was selected as a scientist-astronaut by NASA in June 1965. He then completed a 53-week course in flight training at Williams Air Force Base, Arizona.

He has since logged over 5,000 hours flying time--including over 2,900 hours in jet aircraft and the remainder in spacecraft, light aircraft and helicopters. In addition to NASA ratings, he holds FAA commercial pilot and flight instructor certification for instrument and multi-engine aircraft.

Dr. Garriott was science-pilot for Skylab-3 (SL-3), the second manned Skylab mission, and was in orbit from July 28 to September 25, 1973. With him on this 59-1/2-day flight were Alan L. Bean (spacecraft commander) and Jack R. Lousma (pilot). SL-3 accomplished 150% of many mission goals while completing 858 revolutions of the Earth and traveling some 24,400,000 miles. The crew installed six replacement rate gyros used for attitude control of the spacecraft and a twin pole sunshade used for thermal control, and repaired nine major experiment or operational equipment items. They devoted 305 manhours to extensive solar observations and completed 333 medical experiment performances to obtain valuable data on the effects of extended weightlessness on man. Skylab-3 ended with a Pacific Ocean splashdown and recovery by the USS New ORLEANS.

The crew of Skylab-3 logged 1,427 hours and 9 minutes each in space, setting a new world record for a single mission, and Garriott also spent 13 hours and 43 minutes in three separate extravehicular activities outside the orbital workshop.

Following his Skylab flight, Dr. Garriott served as Deputy and then Director of Science and Applications, and as the Assistant Director for Space and Life Science at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. He later served (1984-1986) as the Space Station Project Scientist.

Dr. Garriott was a mission specialist on STS-9/Spacelab-1 which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on November 28, 1983. He was accompanied by spacecraft commander, Mr. John W. Young; pilot, Lt. Col. Brewster H. Shaw, Jr.; fellow mission specialist, Dr. Robert A. Parker; and payload specialists, Dr. Byron Lichtenberg and Dr. Ulf Merbold. This six-man crew was the largest yet to fly aboard a single spacecraft, the first international shuttle crew, and the first to carry payload specialists.

During this maiden flight of the European Space Agency (ESA) - developed laboratory, the crew conducted more than 70 multi-disciplinary scientific and technical investigations in the fields of life sciences, atmospheric physics and Earth observations, astronomy and solar physics, space plasma physics, and materials processing. In off duty hours, the first manned amateur radio operations in space were conducted, using Garriott's station call, W5LFL.

After 10-days of Spacelab hardware verification and around-the-clock scientific operations, Columbia and its laboratory cargo landed on the dry lakebed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on December 8, 1983

Dr. Garriott resigned from the NASA in 1986 and later served as Vice President, Space Programs for Teledyne Brown Engineering in Huntsville, AL (1988-1993). He is currently a co-founder and President of Immutherapeutics, Inc. in Huntsville.

JANUARY 1996

• NASA Astronaut Biographies, Johnson Space Center, NASA, 1995-present. Web Address when accessed: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/.

• 28 July 1973 Flight: Skylab 3. Flight Up: Skylab 3. Flight Back: Skylab 3. Flight Time: 59.46 days.

• 28 November 1983 Flight: STS-9. Flight Up: STS-9. Flight Back: STS-9. Flight Time: 10.32 days.

Continued maintenance of the Skylab space station and extensive scientific and medical experiments. Installed twinpole solar shield on EVA; performed major inflight maintenance; doubled record for length of time in space. Completed 858 Earth orbits and 1,081 hours of solar and Earth experiments; three EVAs totalled 13 hours, 43 minutes.

The space vehicle, consisting of a modified Apollo command and service module payload on a Saturn IB launch vehicle, was inserted into a 231.3 by 154.7 km orbit. Rendezvous maneuvers were performed during the first five orbits as planned. During the rendezvous, the CSM reaction control system forward firing engine oxidizer valve leaked. The quad was isolated. Station-keeping with the Saturn Workshop began approximately 8 hours after liftoff, with docking being performed about 30 minutes later.

Installed second sunshade. Replaced solar camera film cartridges. During EVA by crew members of Skylab 3, a twin-boom sunshade, developed by MSFC, was deployed over the parasol of the OWS. A redesigned and refined thermal parasol had been launched with Skylab 3. However, its use would have required jettisoning the parasol deployed by crew members of Skylab 2, with the possibility of creating the same thermal problems that existed on the OWS prior to the parasol deployment. Following erection of the twin-pole sunshade, the cabin temperature stayed at a comfortable 293-297 K (67.7°F-74.9°F).

Replaced solar camera film cartridges; installed replacement gyroscopes.

Replaced film cartridges for solar camera.

Skylab 3 landed at 22:19 GMT.

Carried ESA Spacelab. Payloads: Payload: Spacelab-1 experiments, habitable Spacelab and pallet, carried 71 experiments. The six-man crew was divided into two 12-hour-day red and blue teams to operate experiments. First high-inclination orbit of 57 degrees.

STS-9 landed at 23:47 GMT.