Encyclopedia Astronautica
Harris


iharrisb.jpg
Harris
Credit: www.spacefacts.de - www.spacefacts.de
Harris, Dr Bernard Andrew Jr (1956-) African-American physician mission specialist astronaut. Flew on STS-55, STS-63. First African-American to walk in space.

Educated Houston; Texas Tech. Total EVA Time: 0.19 days. Number of EVAs: 1.

NASA Official Biography

NAME: Bernard A. Harris, Jr., (M.D.)
NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:
Born June 26, 1956, in Temple, Texas. Married to the former Sandra Fay Lewis of Sunnyvale, California. They have one child. He enjoys flying, sailing, skiing, running, scuba diving, art and music. Bernard's mother, Mrs. Gussie H. Burgess, and his stepfather, Mr. Joe Roye Burgess, reside in San Antonio, Texas. His father, Mr. Bernard A. Harris, Sr., resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sandra's parents, Mr. & Mrs. Joe Reed, reside in Sunnyvale.

EDUCATION:
Graduated from Sam Houston High School, San Antonio, Texas, in 1974; received a bachelor of science degree in biology from University of Houston in 1978, a doctorate in medicine from Texas Tech University School of Medicine in 1982. Dr. Harris completed a residency in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic in 1985. In addition, he completed a National Research Council Fellowship at NASA Ames Research Center in 1987, and trained as a flight surgeon at the Aerospace School of Medicine, Brooks Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas, in 1988. Dr. Harris also received a master's degree in biomedical science from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in 1996.

ORGANIZATIONS:
Member of the American College of Physicians, American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, Aerospace Medical Association, National Medical Association, American Medical Association, Minnesota Medical Association, Texas Medical Association, Harris County Medical Society, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Texas Tech University Alumni Association, and Mayo Clinic Alumni Association. Aircraft Owners and Pilot Association. Association of Space Explorers. American Astronautical Society. Member, Board of Directors, Boys and Girls Club of Houston. Committee Member, Greater Houston Area Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Member, Board of Directors, Manned Space Flight Education Foundation Inc.

SPECIAL HONORS:
1996 Honorary Doctorate of Science, Morehouse School of Medicine. Medal of Excellence, Golden State Minority Foundation 1996. NASA Award of Merit 1996. NASA Equal Opportunity Medal 1996. NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal 1996. The Challenger Award, The Ronald E. McNair Foundation 1996. Award of Achievement, The Association of Black Cardiologists 1996. Space Act Tech Brief Award 1995. Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, Zeta of Texas Chapter 1995. Election of Fellowship in the American College of Physicians 1994. Distinguished Alumnus, The University of Houston Alumni Organization 1994. Distinguished Scientist of the Year, ARCS Foundation, Inc., 1994. Life Membership, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. NASA Space Flight Medals 1993, 1995. NASA Outstanding Performance Rating 1993. JSC Group Achievement Award 1993. Physician of the Year, National Technical Association, 1993. Achiever of the Year, National Technical Association, 1993. American Astronautical Society Melbourne W. Boynton Award for Outstanding Contribution to Space Medicine 1993. Achievement Award, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity 1993. Who's Who Among Rising Young Americans Citation 1992. Certificate of Merit, Governor of Texas 1990. City of San Antonio Citation for Achievement 1990. NASA Sustained Superior Performance Award 1989. NASA Outstanding Performance Rating 1988. NASA Sustained Superior Performance Award 1988, 1989. National Research Council Fellowship 1986, 1987. Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society 1985. Outstanding Young Men of America 1984. University of Houston Achievement Award 1978. Achievement Award 1978.

EXPERIENCE:
After completing his residency training in 1985 at the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Harris then completed a National Research Council Fellowship at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. While at Ames he conducted research in the field of musculoskeletal physiology, and disuse osteoporosis, completing his fellowship in 1987. He then joined NASA Johnson Space Center as a clinical scientist and flight surgeon. His duties included clinical investigations of space adaptation and the development of countermeasures for extended duration space flight. Assigned to the Medical Science Division, he held the title of Project Manager, Exercise Countermeasure Project. Dr. Harris holds several faculty appointments. He is an associate professor in internal medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch; an assistant professor at the Baylor College of Medicine; a clinical professor at the University of Texas School of Medicine; and is an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health. He is a member, Board of Regents for the Texas Tech University Health Science Center in Lubbock, Texas. Fellow, American College of Physicians. He is the author and co-author of numerous scientific publications. In addition, Dr. Harris has been in group medical practice in internal medicine with both the South Texas Primary Care in San Antonio, Texas, and with the San Jose Medical Group in San Jose, California. Dr. Harris is also a licensed private pilot.

Selected by NASA in January 1990, Dr. Harris became an astronaut in July 1991. He is qualified for assignment as a mission specialist on future Space Shuttle flight crews. He served as the crew representative for Shuttle Software in the Astronaut Office Operations Development Branch. A veteran of two space flights, Dr. Harris has logged more than 438 hours in space. He was a mission specialist on STS-55 (April 26 to May 6, 1993), and was the Payload Commander on STS-63 (February 2-11, 1995).

Dr. Harris was assigned as a mission specialist on STS-55, Spacelab D-2, in August 1991, and later flew on board Columbia for ten days, (April 26 to May 6, 1993), marking the Shuttle's one year of total flight time. Dr. Harris was part of the payload crew of Spacelab D-2, conducting a variety of research in physical and life sciences. During this flight, Dr. Harris logged over 239 hours and 4,164,183 miles in space.

Most recently, Dr. Harris was the Payload Commander on STS-63 (February 2-11, 1995), the first flight of the new joint Russian-American Space Program. Mission highlights included the rendezvous with the Russian Space Station, Mir, operation of a variety of investigations in the Spacehab module, and the deployment and retrieval of Spartan 204. During the flight, Dr. Harris became the first African-American to walk in space. He logged 198 hours, 29 minutes in space, completed 129 orbits, and traveled over 2.9 million miles.

Dr. Harris left NASA in April 1996 to become Vice President of Microgravity and Life Sciences for SPACEHAB Incorporated of Houston, Texas.

FEBRUARY 1997

Birth Place: Temple, Texas.
Status: Inactive.


Born: 1956.06.26.
Spaceflights: 2 .
Total time in space: 18.26 days.

More... - Chronology...
Associated Countries
See also
  • NASA Group 13 - 1990 Requirement: pilot, engineer, and scientist astronauts for space shuttle flights. Nickname: The Hairballs. As the 13th astronaut group, the 'unlucky' theme was discussed in designing an emblem for the group. A black cat was used on an early patch design rejected by NASA. This reminded some of hairballs and the group members adopted this as a nickname. More...
Associated Flights
  • STS-55 Crew: Harris, Henricks, Nagel, Precourt, Ross, Schlegel, Walter. Manned seven crew. Carried German Spacelab-D2. More...
  • STS-63 Crew: Collins Eileen, Foale, Harris, Titov Vladimir, Voss Janice, Wetherbee. First African-American to walk in space. First female shuttle pilot. First rendezvous of a shuttle with the Mir space station. Deployed ODERACS 2A-2E; deployed and retrieved Spartan 204. Backup crew: Krikalyov. More...
Associated Programs
  • Mir The Mir space station was the last remnant of the once mighty Soviet space programme. It was built to last only five years, and was to have been composed of modules launched by Proton and Buran/Energia launch vehicles. These modules were derived from those originally designed by Chelomei in the 1960's for the Almaz military station programme. As the Soviet Union collapsed Mir stayed in orbit, but the final modules were years late and could only be completed with American financial assistance. Kept flying over a decade beyond its rated life, Mir proved a source of pride to the Russian people and proved the ability of their cosmonauts and engineers to improvise and keep operations going despite all manner of challenges and mishaps. More...
  • STS The Space Transportation System (Space Shuttle) was conceived originally as a completely reusable system that would provide cheap, routine access to space and replace all American and civilian military launch vehicles. Crippled by technological overreach, political compromise, and budget limitations, it instead ended up costing more than the expendable rockets it was to have replaced. STS sucked the money out of all other NASA projects for half a century. The military abandoned its use after the Challenger shuttle explosion in the 1980's. More...
Bibliography
  • NASA Astronaut Biographies, Johnson Space Center, NASA, 1995-present. Web Address when accessed: here.

Harris Chronology
1990 January 17 - .
  • NASA Astronaut Training Group 13 selected. - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Bursch; Chiao; Clifford; Cockrell; Collins, Eileen; Currie; Gregory, William; Halsell; Harris; Helms; Jones; McArthur; Newman; Ochoa; Precourt; Searfoss; Sega; Thomas; Voss, Janice; Walz; Wilcutt; Wisoff; Wolf. The group was selected to provide pilot, engineer, and scientist astronauts for space shuttle flights.. Qualifications: Pilots: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics. Advanced degree desirable. At least 1,000 flight-hours of pilot-in-command time. Flight test experience desirable. Excellent health. Vision minimum 20/50 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20 vision; maximum sitting blood pressure 140/90. Height between 163 and 193 cm.

    Mission Specialists: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics and minimum three years of related experience or an advanced degree. Vision minimum 20/150 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20. Maximum sitting blood pressure of 140/90. Height between 150 and 193 cm.. Reported to the Johnson Space Center in late July 1990 to begin their year long training. Chosen from 1945 qualified applicants, then 106 finalists screened between September and November 1989.

1993 April 26 - . 14:50 GMT - . Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Complex: Cape Canaveral LC39A. LV Family: Shuttle. Launch Vehicle: Shuttle. LV Configuration: Space Shuttle STS-55.
  • STS-55 - . Call Sign: Columbia. Crew: Harris; Henricks; Nagel; Precourt; Ross; Schlegel; Walter. Payload: Columbia F14/USS/Spacelab D-2 LM. Mass: 12,185 kg (26,863 lb). Nation: USA. Related Persons: Harris; Henricks; Nagel; Precourt; Ross; Schlegel; Walter. Agency: NASA Houston. Program: STS. Class: Manned. Type: Manned spaceplane. Flight: STS-55. Spacecraft: Columbia. Duration: 9.99 days. Decay Date: 1993-05-06 . USAF Sat Cat: 22640 . COSPAR: 1993-027A. Apogee: 312 km (193 mi). Perigee: 304 km (188 mi). Inclination: 28.5000 deg. Period: 90.70 min. Summary: Manned seven crew. Carried German Spacelab-D2. Payloads: Spacelab D-2 with long module, unique support structure (USS), and Reaction Kinetics in Glass Melts (RKGM) getaway special, Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX) II..
1993 May 5 - .
1995 February 3 - . 05:22 GMT - . Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Complex: Cape Canaveral LC39B. LV Family: Shuttle. Launch Vehicle: Shuttle. LV Configuration: Space Shuttle STS-63.
  • STS-63 - . Call Sign: Discovery. Crew: Collins, Eileen; Foale; Harris; Titov, Vladimir; Voss, Janice; Wetherbee. Backup Crew: Krikalyov. Payload: Discovery F20 / Spacehab SH03 / CGP / ODERACS. Mass: 8,641 kg (19,050 lb). Nation: USA. Related Persons: Collins, Eileen; Foale; Harris; Titov, Vladimir; Voss, Janice; Wetherbee; Krikalyov. Agency: NASA Houston. Program: Mir. Class: Manned. Type: Manned spaceplane. Flight: STS-63; Mir EO-17; Mir LD-4. Spacecraft: Discovery. Duration: 8.27 days. Decay Date: 1995-02-11 . USAF Sat Cat: 23469 . COSPAR: 1995-004A. Apogee: 342 km (212 mi). Perigee: 275 km (170 mi). Inclination: 51.6000 deg. Period: 92.30 min. Deployed ODERACS 2A-2E; deployed and retrieved Spartan 204. Discovery rendezvoused with Russia's space station, Mir, to a distance of 11 m and performed a fly-around, but did not dock with Mir. Payloads: SPACEHAB 03, Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy (SPARTAN) 204, Cryo Systems Experiment (CSE)/GLO-2 Experi-ment Payload (CGP)/Orbital Debris Radar Calibration Spheres (ODERACS) 2, Solid Surface Combustion Experiment (SSCE), Air Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS), IMAX Cargo Bay Camera (ICBC)
1995 February 9 - . 11:56 GMT - .
  • EVA STS-63-1 - . Crew: Foale; Harris. EVA Type: Extra-Vehicular Activity. EVA Duration: 0.19 days. Nation: USA. Related Persons: Foale; Harris. Program: STS. Class: Manned. Type: Manned spaceplane. Flight: STS-63. Spacecraft: Discovery. Summary: Tested tools and techniques for extravehicular activity..
1995 February 11 - .
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