STS-66

Donald R. McMonagle

• Birthday: 05/14/1952
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 04/28/1991
• Last Flight: 11/03/1994

Donald Ray McMonagle is a former astronaut and a veteran of three shuttle flights. He became the Manager, Launch Integration, at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on August 15, 1997. In this capacity he was responsible for final shuttle preparation, launch execution, and return of the orbiter to KSC following landings at any other location. He was chair of the Mission Management Team, and was the final authority for launch decision.

Curtis Brown

• Birthday: 03/11/1956
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 09/12/1992
• Last Flight: 12/20/1999

Curtis Lee “Curt” Brown Jr. is a former NASA astronaut and retired United States Air Force colonel.

Jean-François Clervoy

• Birthday: 11/19/1958
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: French
• First Flight: 11/03/1994
• Last Flight: 12/20/1999

Jean-François André Clervoy (born 19 November 1958) is a French engineer and a CNES and ESA astronaut. He is a veteran of three NASA Space Shuttle missions.

Ellen Ochoa

• Birthday: 05/10/1958
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 04/08/1993
• Last Flight: 04/08/2002

Ellen Ochoa is an American engineer, former astronaut and the current Director of the Johnson Space Center. Ochoa became director of the center upon the retirement of the previous director, Michael Coats, on December 31, 2012. In 1993 Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman in the world to go to space when she served on a nine-day mission aboard the shuttle Discovery.

Joseph R. Tanner

• Birthday: 01/21/1950
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 11/03/1994
• Last Flight: 09/09/2006

Joseph Richard “Joe” Tanner is an American instructor at the University of Colorado Boulder, mechanical engineer, a former naval officer and aviator, and a former NASA astronaut. He was born in Danville, Illinois. He is unusual among astronauts as he did not have a background in flight test nor did he earn any advanced academic degrees. Typically those who did not do military flight test have an M.D. or Ph.D., if not a master’s, whereas Tanner’s path to becoming an astronaut followed operational military flying and then into NASA for operational jet training before being selected into the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1992, following an unsuccessful application in 1987.

Scott E. Parazynski

• Birthday: 07/28/1961
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 11/03/1994
• Last Flight: 10/23/2007

Scott Edward Parazynski is an American physician and a former NASA astronaut. A veteran of five Space Shuttle flights and seven spacewalks, Parazynski’s latest mission was STS-120 in October, 2007 – highlighted by a dramatic, unplanned EVA to repair a live solar array. In May 2016 he was inducted into the US Astronaut Hall of Fame. He retired from NASA in March 2009 to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities in the private sector, and he is currently the CEO of a technology start-up. He is the first person to have both flown in space and summited Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth.

STS-66

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

STS-66 was a Space Shuttle program mission that was flown by the Space Shuttle Atlantis. STS-66 launched on 3 November 1994 at 11:59:43.060 am EDT from Launch Pad 39-B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base on 14 November 1994 at 10:33:45 am EST.

Launch Complex 39B

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Launch Complex 39B has witnessed the launch of 58 rockets, including 57 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.