STS-46

Loren Shriver

• Birthday: 09/23/1944
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 01/24/1985
• Last Flight: 07/31/1992

Loren James Shriver is a former NASA astronaut, aviator, and a retired US Air Force Colonel.

Andrew M. Allen

• Birthday: 08/04/1955
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 07/31/1992
• Last Flight: 02/22/1996

Andrew Michael “Andy” Allen is a retired American astronaut. A former Marine aviator and lieutenant colonel, he worked as a test pilot before joining NASA in 1987. He flew three Space Shuttle missions before retiring in 1997.

Franco Malerba

• Birthday: 10/10/1946
• Role: Payload Specialist
• Nationality: Italian
• First Flight: 07/31/1992
• Last Flight: 07/31/1992

Franco Egidio Malerba (born 10 October 1946 in Busalla, Metropolitan City of Genoa, Italy) is an astronaut. He was the first citizen of Italy to travel to space.
After selection in 1989 as a Payload Specialist by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and NASA, he became a staff member of ASI and was assigned to the NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, for training. In September 1991, he was designated Prime Payload Specialist for the TSS-1 Space Shuttle mission. Malerba flew as the first Italian citizen in space on STS-46 (31 July 1992 to 7 August 1992).

Claude Nicollier

• Birthday: 09/02/1944
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: Swiss
• First Flight: 07/31/1992
• Last Flight: 12/20/1999

Claude Nicollier is the first astronaut from Switzerland. He has flown on four Space Shuttle missions. His first spaceflight (STS-46) was in 1992, and his final spaceflight (STS-103) was in 1999. He took part in two servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope (called STS-61 and STS-103). During his final spaceflight he participated in a spacewalk, becoming the first European Space Agency astronaut to do so during a Space Shuttle mission. In 2000 he was assigned to the Astronaut Office Extravehicular Activity Branch, while maintaining a position as Lead ESA Astronaut in Houston. Nicollier retired from ESA in April 2007.

Jeffrey Hoffman

• Birthday: 11/02/1944
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 04/12/1985
• Last Flight: 02/22/1996

Jeffrey Alan Hoffman is an American former NASA astronaut and currently a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. Hoffman made five flights as a space shuttle astronaut, including the first mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope in 1993, when the orbiting telescope’s flawed optical system was corrected.

Marsha Ivins

• Birthday: 04/15/1951
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 01/09/1990
• Last Flight: 02/07/2001

Marsha Sue Ivins is an American former astronaut and a veteran of five space shuttle missions.

Franklin Chang Díaz

• Birthday: 04/05/1950
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 01/12/1986
• Last Flight: 06/05/2002

Franklin Ramón Chang Díaz is a Costa Rican Chinese American mechanical engineer, physicist, former NASA astronaut. He is the founder and current CEO of Ad Astra Rocket Company as well as a member of Cummins’ board of directors. He became an American citizen in 1977. He is of Chinese (paternal side) and Costa Rican Spanish (maternal side) descent. He is a veteran of seven Space Shuttle missions, tieing the record, as of 2018 for the most spaceflights (a record set by Jerry L. Ross). He was the third Latin American, but the first Latin American immigrant NASA Astronaut selected to go into space. Chang Díaz is a member of the NASA Astronaut Hall of Fame.

STS-46

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

STS-46 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission using Space Shuttle Atlantis and was launched on 31 July 1992 at 9:56:48 am EDT.

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.