STS-2

Crew

Richard H. Truly

Status: Retired
11/12/1937 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 11/12/1981
Last Flight: 8/30/1983

Richard Harrison Truly is a retired Vice Admiral in the United States Navy, a former fighter pilot, former astronaut for both the United States Air Force and NASA, and was the eighth Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from 1989 to 1992. He was the first former astronaut to head the space agency.

After his departure from NASA, he led the Georgia Tech Research Institute from 1992 to 1997, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory from 1997 to 2005.

Joe Engle

Status: Retired
8/26/1932 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 6/29/1965
Last Flight: 8/27/1985

Joe Henry Engle is an American pilot who served in the United States Air Force, test pilot for the North American X-15 program, aeronautical engineer, and a former NASA astronaut. As of 2018, he is the last living pilot of the X-15 program.

Engle test-flew the joint NASA-Air Force X-15 rocket airplane. During the course of testing, Engle earned his USAF Astronaut Wings, a Distinguished Flying Cross and other awards. Engle was selected by NASA in 1966 for the Apollo program, and was originally scheduled to land on the Moon as Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 17, but was bumped when later flights were cancelled, so that geologist-astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt could fly.

He subsequently became one of the first astronauts in the Space Shuttle program, having flight tested the Space Shuttle Enterprise in 1977. He was Commander of the second orbital test flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981.

Rocket

Space Shuttle Columbia OV-102 – United Space Alliance

• Family: Space Shuttle
• Length: 38.1 m
• Diameter: 8.4 m
• Launch Mass: 2040 T
• Low Earth Orbit Capacity: 24400 kg

The Space Shuttle Columbia OV-102 was manufactured by United Space Alliance with the first launch on 1981-04-12. Space Shuttle Columbia OV-102 has 29 successful launches and 1 failed launches with a total of 30 launches. Space Shuttle Columbia was the first space-rated orbiter in NASA’s Space Shuttle fleet. It launched for the first time on mission STS-1 on April 12, 1981, the first flight of the Space Shuttle program. Over 22 years of service it completed 27 missions before disintegrating during re-entry near the end of its 28th mission, STS-107 on February 1, 2003, resulting in the deaths of all seven crew members.

Agency

Rockwell International – ROI

• Type: Commercial
• Abbreviation: ROI
• Country: USA