Owen Garriott, record-setting Alabama astronaut, dies at 88 (al.com)
Posted Apr 15, 2019
By Howard Koplowitz | hkoplowitz@al.com
Owen Garriott, a former NASA astronaut who was part a mission that set the then-record for longest time in space in 1973, died Monday at his home in Huntsville, NASA said. He was 88.
“The astronauts, scientists and engineers at Johnson Space Center are saddened by the loss of Owen Garriott,” Pat Forrester, chief astronaut at NASA said in a statement. “We remember the history he made during the Skylab and space shuttle programs that helped shape the space program we have today. Not only was he a bright scientist and astronaut, he and his crewmates set the stage for international cooperation in human spaceflight. He also was the first to participate in amateur radio from space, a hobby many of our astronauts still enjoy today.”
Garriot, who became an astronaut in 1965, was part of the Skylab 3 mission to the Skylab space station in 1973, where he was a science-pilot. During his 60 days in space during the mission – a record at the time – he logged 13 hours and 43 minutes in three separate spacewalks.
He was the mission specialist in his other space flight in 1983 on the Space Shuttle Columbia for STS-9/Spacelab-1. Garriot and his five other crewmates became the first international shuttle crew on the flight with Ulf Merbold of the European Space Agency aboard. The group also carried the first payload specialist and was the largest number of crew aboard a single spacecraft.
Garriott was born in Enid, Oklahoma. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Oklahoma, and master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He served as an electronics officer while on active duty with the U.S. Navy from 1953 to 1956, and was stationed aboard several U.S. destroyers at sea. Garriott then taught electronics, electromagnetic theory and ionospheric physics as an associate professor at Stanford. He performed research in ionospheric physics and has authored or co-authored more than 40 scientific papers and one book on this subject.
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not much more: https://www.al.com/news/2019/04/owen-garriott-record-setting-alabama-astronaut-dies-at-88.html
Obituary: http://obits.al.com/obituaries/huntsville/obituary.aspx?n=owen-k-garriott&pid=192409751&fhid=5535
Garriott and his wife, Eve, were longtime residents of Huntsville. He sat on the board of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Foundation, helped develop its Skylab exhibit and donated his Skylab Extravehicular Mobility Unit suit to the center collection. It is on display beside the Russian Soyuz suit that Garriott’s son, Richard Garriott, wore on a private astronaut trip to the International Space Station in 2008.
https://www.al.com/news/huntsville/2019/04/memorial-service-is-tonight-for-astronaut-owen-garriott.html
Entrepreneurs for Hillary is hosting an event in Huntsville on June 18 in support of Hillary Clintpon{sic!} for America, with America's only father/son astronauts, Owen Garriott and Richard Garriott, along with Laetitia Garriott, space technology entrepreneur and co-founder of Entrepreneurs for Hillary.
http://blog.al.com/press-releases/2016/06/huntsville_event_with_americas.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
