Thagard
Thagard
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Dr Norman Earl (Norm) Thagard American Mission Specialist Astronaut. Born 3 July 1943. First American to fly aboard a Russian spacecraft.

Personal: Male, Married, Three children. Born in Marianna, Florida, USA. MD

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: NASA Group 8 - 1978. Inactive Entered space service: 16 January 1978. Left space service: 3 January 1996. Number of Flights: 5.00. Total Time: 140.56 days.

NASA Official Biography

NAME: Norman E. Thagard (M.D.)
NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:
Born July 3, 1943, in Marianna, Florida, but considers Jacksonville, Florida, to be his hometown. Married to the former Rex Kirby Johnson of South Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. They have three sons. During his free time, he enjoys classical music, and electronic design. Dr. Thagard has published articles on digital and analog electronic design. His father, Mr. James E. Thagard, is deceased; his mother, Mrs. Mary F. Nicholson, is a resident of St. Peterburg, Florida. Her mother, Mrs. Rex Johnson, resides in Tallahassee, Florida.

EDUCATION:
Graduated from Paxon Senior High School, Jacksonville, Florida, in 1961; attended Florida State University where he received bachelor and master of science degrees in engineering science in 1965 and 1966, respectively, and subsequently performed pre-med course work; received a doctor of medicine degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in 1977.

ORGANIZATIONS:
Member, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Aerospace Medical Association, and Phi Kappa Phi.

SPECIAL HONORS:
Awarded 11 Air Medals, the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat "V", the Marine Corps "E" Award, the Vietnam Service Medal, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm.

EXPERIENCE:
Dr. Thagard held a number of research and teaching posts while completing the academic requirements for various earned degrees.

In September 1966, he entered active duty with the United States Marine Corps Reserve. He achieved the rank of Captain in 1967, was designated a naval aviator in 1968, and was subsequently assigned to duty flying F-4s with VMFA-333 at Marine Corps Air Station, Beaufort, South Carolina. He flew 163 combat missions in Vietnam while assigned to VMFA-115 from January 1969 to 1970. He returned to the United States and an assignment as aviation weapons division officer with VMFA-251 at the Marine Corps Air Station, Beaufort, South Carolina.

Thagard resumed his academic studies in 1971, pursuing additional studies in electrical engineering, and a degree in medicine; prior to coming to NASA, he was interning in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. He is a licensed physician.

He is a pilot and has logged over 2,200 hours flying time--the majority in jet aircraft.

NASA EXPERIENCE:
Dr. Thagard was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in January 1978. In August 1979, he completed a one-year training and evaluation period, making him eligible for assignment as a mission specialist on future Space Shuttle flights. A veteran of five space flights, he has logged over 140 days in space. He was a mission specialist on on STS-7 in 1983, STS 51-B in 1985, STS-30 in 1989, was the payload commander on STS-42 in 1992, and was
Thagard Spaceflight Log

  • 18 June 1983 Flight: STS-7. Flight Up: STS-7. Flight Back: STS-7. Flight Time: 6.10 days.
  • 29 April 1985 Flight: STS-51-B. Flight Up: STS-51-B. Flight Back: STS-51-B. Flight Time: 7.01 days.
  • 4 May 1989 Flight: STS-30. Flight Up: STS-30. Flight Back: STS-30. Flight Time: 4.04 days.
  • 22 January 1992 Flight: STS-42. Flight Up: STS-42. Flight Back: STS-42. Flight Time: 8.05 days.
  • 14 March 1995 Flight: Mir EO-18. Flight Up: Soyuz TM-21. Flight Back: STS-71. Flight Time: 115.36 days.
Thagard Chronology

18 June 1983 - STS-7. Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight: STS-7. Manned five crew. Deployed Anik C2, Palapa B1; deployed and retrieved SPAS platform. Payloads: Office of Space and Terrestrial Applications (OSTA)-2 experiments, deployment of PALAPA-B1 communications satellite for Indonesia with Payload Assist Module (PAM)-D and Telesat-F communications satellite for Canada with PAM-D, German Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS)-01, seven getaway specials (GAS), Monodisperse Latex Reactor (MLR), Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System (CFES).

24 June 1983 - Landing of STS-7. Assignment: Return Crew. Flight: STS-7. STS-7 landed at 13:56 GMT.
29 April 1985 - STS-51-B. Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight: STS-51-B. Manned seven crew. Deployed Nusat; carried Spacelab 3. Payloads: Spacelab-3 experiments, habitable Spacelab and mission peculiar experiment support structure. The experiments represented a total of five different disciplines: materials processing in space, environmental observa-tions, life science, astrophysics, and technology experiments. Two getaway specials (GAS). The flight crew was split into gold and silver shifts working 12-hour days during the flight.
6 May 1985 - Landing of STS-51-B. Assignment: Return Crew. Flight: STS-51-B. STS-51-B landed at 16:13 GMT.
1986 May - STS-61-G (cancelled). Assignment: Proposed Prime Crew. Flight: STS-61-G. Planned shuttle mission for deployment of Galileo spacecraft. Cancelled after Challenger disaster.
4 May 1989 - STS-30. Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight: STS-30. Manned five crew. Deployed Magellan Venus probe. Payloads: Deploy IUS with Magellan spacecraft. Fluids Experiment Apparatus (FEA). Mesoscale Lightning Experiment (MLE), Air Force Maui Optical Site (AMOS) experiment.
8 May 1989 - Landing of STS-30. Assignment: Return Crew. Flight: STS-30. STS-30 landed at 19:40 GMT.
22 January 1992 - STS-42. Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight: STS-42. Manned seven crew. Carried International Microgravity Laboratory-1. Payloads: International Microgravity Laboratory (lML)-1, getaway special (GAS) bridge with 10 getaway specials, IMAX camera, Gelation of Sols: Applied Microgravity Research (GOSAMR)-1, Investigations Into Polymer Mem-brane Processing (IPMP), Radiation Monitoring Equipment (RME)-lll, Student Experiment 81-09: Convection in Zero Gravity, Student Experiment 83-02: Capillary Rise of Liquid Through Granular Porous Media.
30 January 1992 - Landing of STS-42. Assignment: Return Crew. Flight: STS-42. STS-42 landed at 16:07 GMT.
14 March 1995 - Soyuz TM-21. Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight: Mir EO-18, Mir EO-17, Mir LD-4. Mir Expedition EO-18. Soyuz TM-21 carried the EO-18 Mir crew and American Norman Thagard. Thagard was the first American to be launched in a Soyuz. Soyuz docked with Mir at 07:45:26 GMT on March 16 . On July 4 Soyuz TM-21 undocked and backed off to a distance of 100 m from Mir. The US space shuttle Atlantis, with the EO-18 crew aboard, then undocked and began a flyaround at a distance of 210 m, while the EO-19 crew aboard Soyuz took pictures before redocking with the station. Soyuz TM-21 again undocked with the EO-19 crew on September 11 from the Kvant rear port on Mir and landed at 50 deg 41'N 68 deg 15'E, 108 km northeast of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan, at 06:52:40 GMT .
7 July 1995 - Landing of STS-71. Assignment: Return Crew. Flight: STS-71, Mir EO-19, Mir EO-18. STS-71 landed at 14:55 GMT with the crew of Baker, Dezhurov, Dunbar, Gibson, Harbaugh, Precourt, Strekalov and Thagard aboard.
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