STS-45

Charles Bolden

• Birthday: 08/19/1946
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 01/12/1986
• Last Flight: 02/03/1994

Charles Frank Bolden Jr. is a former Administrator of NASA, a retired United States Marine Corps Major General, and a former NASA astronaut.

A 1968 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, he became a Marine Aviator and test pilot. After his service as an astronaut, he became Deputy Commandant of Midshipmen at the Naval Academy.

On May 23, 2009, President Barack Obama announced the nomination of Bolden as NASA Administrator and Lori Garver as Deputy NASA Administrator. Bolden was confirmed by the Senate on July 15, 2009. He was the first African American to head the agency on a permanent basis.

On January 12, 2017, Bolden announced his resignation from NASA during a town hall meeting at NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C. His last day would be January 19, and Robert M. Lightfoot Jr. was announced as acting NASA Administrator.

Brian Duffy

• Birthday: 06/20/1953
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 03/24/1992
• Last Flight: 10/11/2000

Brian Duffy is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and a former NASA astronaut. He flew aboard four Space Shuttle missions.

Dirk Frimout

• Birthday: 03/21/1941
• Role: Payload Specialist
• Nationality: Belgian
• First Flight: 03/24/1992
• Last Flight: 03/24/1992

Dirk Dries David Damiaan, Viscount Frimout (born 21 March 1941 in Poperinge, Belgium) is an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency. He flew aboard NASA Space Shuttle mision STS-45 as a payload specialist, making him the first Belgian in space.

Byron K. Lichtenberg

• Birthday: 02/19/1948
• Role: Payload Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 11/28/1983
• Last Flight: 03/24/1992

Byron Kurt Lichtenberg, Sc. D. (born February 19, 1948) is an American engineer and fighter pilot who flew aboard two NASA Space Shuttle missions as a Payload Specialist. In 1983, he and Ulf Merbold became the first Payload Specialists to fly on the shuttle.

David Leestma

• Birthday: 05/06/1949
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 10/05/1984
• Last Flight: 03/24/1992

David Cornell Leestma is a former American astronaut and retired Captain in the United States Navy.

Kathryn D. Sullivan

• Birthday: 10/03/1951
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 10/05/1984
• Last Flight: 03/24/1992

Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan is an American geologist and a former NASA astronaut. A crew member on three Space Shuttle missions, she was the first American woman to walk in space on October 11, 1984. She was Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration after being confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 6, 2014. Sullivan’s tenure ended on January 20, 2017 with the swearing in of President Donald Trump. Following completion of her service at NOAA, she was designated as the 2017 Charles A. Lindbergh Chair of Aerospace History at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, and has also served as a Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.

Michael Foale

• Birthday: 01/06/1957
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 03/24/1992
• Last Flight: 10/18/2003

Colin Michael Foale CBE is a British-American astrophysicist and former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of six space missions, and is the only NASA astronaut to have flown extended missions aboard both Mir and the International Space Station. He was the first Briton to perform a space walk, and until 17 April 2008, he held the record for most time spent in space by a US citizen: 374 days, 11 hours, 19 minutes. He still holds the cumulative-time-in-space record for a UK citizen.

STS-45

• Orbit: Low Earth Orbit
• Launch Cost: $450,000,000

STS-45 was a 1992 Space Shuttle mission using the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Its almost nine-day scientific mission was with a non-deployable payload of instruments. It was the 46th Space Shuttle mission and the 11th for Atlantis.

Launch Complex 39A

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Launch Complex 39A has witnessed the launch of 174 rockets, including 173 orbital launch attempts, while Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA, has been the site for 232 rocket launches.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS). Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011.