STS-28

Brewster H. Shaw

• Birthday: 05/16/1945
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 11/28/1983
• Last Flight: 08/08/1989

Brewster Hopkinson Shaw Jr. is a former NASA astronaut, a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and former executive at Boeing. Shaw was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on May 6, 2006.[1]

Shaw is a veteran of three Space Shuttle missions and has logged 533 hours of space flight. He was Pilot of Space Shuttle Columbia in November 1983, Commander of Space Shuttle Atlantis in November 1985 and Commander of Columbia in August 1989.

Following the Space Shuttle Challenger accident in 1986, he supported the Roger’s Presidential Commission[2] investigating the accident. Shaw subsequently led the Space Shuttle Orbiter return-to-flight team chartered to enhance the safety of the vehicles’ operations.

Shaw worked as a manager at NASA until 1996 when he left the agency, retired from the Air Force and went to work in the private sector as an aerospace executive.

Richard N. Richards

• Birthday: 08/24/1946
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 08/08/1989
• Last Flight: 09/09/1994

Richard Noel “Dick” Richards is a retired American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, chemical engineer, and a former NASA astronaut. He flew aboard four Space Shuttle missions in the 1980s and 1990s.

James C. Adamson

• Birthday: 03/03/1946
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 08/08/1989
• Last Flight: 08/02/1991

James Craig Adamson is a former NASA astronaut and retired Colonel of the United States Army. He is married with 3 children. James Adamson flew on two missions, STS-28 and STS-43, and completed 263 orbits and 334 hours in space. After retiring from NASA, he was recruited by Allied Signal (later merged with Honeywell) where he retired in 2001. Adamson has logged over 3,000 hours in over 30 different types of helicopters and airplanes.

Mark N. Brown

• Birthday: 11/18/1951
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 08/08/1989
• Last Flight: 09/12/1991

Mark Neil Brown is an American engineer, retired Colonel in the United States Air Force and former NASA astronaut.

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.

STS-28

• Type: Government/Top Secret
• Orbit: Low Earth Orbit
• Launch Cost: $450,000,000

STS-28 was the thirtieth space shuttle mission, the fourth dedicated to the Department of Defence and the eigth of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

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.