STS-40

Bryan D. O’Connor

• Birthday: 09/06/1946
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 11/27/1985
• Last Flight: 06/05/1991

Bryan Daniel O’Connor is a retired United States Marine Corps Colonel and former NASA astronaut.

Sidney M. Gutierrez

• Birthday: 06/27/1951
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 06/05/1991
• Last Flight: 04/09/1994

Sidney McNeill Gutierrez is a former NASA astronaut.

F. Drew Gaffney

• Birthday: 06/09/1946
• Role: Payload Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 06/05/1991
• Last Flight: 06/05/1991

Francis Andrew “Drew” Gaffney is an American doctor. He previously worked for NASA and participated in the STS-40 Space Life Sciences (SLS 1) Space Shuttle mission in 1991 as a payload specialist. The SLS-1 mission crew completed over 18 experiments in nine days, bringing back more medical data than any previous NASA flight. He is currently a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University.

Millie Hughes-Fulford

• Birthday: 12/21/1945
• Role: Payload Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 06/05/1991
• Last Flight: 06/05/1991

Millie Elizabeth Hughes-Fulford was an American medical investigator, molecular biologist and former NASA astronaut who flew aboard a NASA Space Shuttle mission as a Payload Specialist.

James P. Bagian

• Birthday: 02/22/1952
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 03/13/1989
• Last Flight: 06/05/1991

James Philip Bagian, MD, PE is an American physician, engineer, and former NASA astronaut of Armenian descent. During his career as an astronaut, he logged 337 hours of space-flight, over two missions, STS-29 (in 1989) and STS-40 (in 1991). After leaving NASA in 1995, Bagian was elected as a member of both the National Academy of Engineering and of the Institute of Medicine. Bagian is currently the Director of the Center for Healthcare Engineering and Patient Safety at the University of Michigan.

Margaret Rhea Seddon

• Birthday: 11/08/1947
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 04/12/1985
• Last Flight: 10/18/1993

Margaret Rhea Seddon is a physician and retired NASA astronaut. After being selected as part of the first group of astronauts to include women, she flew on three Space Shuttle flights: as mission specialist for STS-51-D and STS-40, and as payload commander for STS-58. Both before and after her career in the astronaut program, she has been active in the medical community in Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas.

Tamara E. Jernigan

• Birthday: 05/07/1959
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 06/05/1991
• Last Flight: 05/27/1999

Tamara Elizabeth “Tammy” Jernigan, Ph.D. is an American scientist and former NASA astronaut and a veteran of five shuttle missions.

STS-40

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

STS-40 was the eleventh launch of Columbia and carried the Spacelab module for Spacelab Life Sciences 1 (SLS-1), the fifth Spacelab mission and the first dedicated to biology. It was also the first mission to carry three women crew members.

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.