William A. Pailes Status: Retired 6/26/1952 – Nationality: American Type: Payload Specialist Agency: United States Air Force William Arthur Pailes (Colonel, USAF) (born June 26, 1952) was a USAF astronaut in the Manned Spaceflight Engineer Program during the mid-1980s. He served as a Payload Specialist on STS-51-J Atlantis (October 3–7, 1985).