STS-53

Crew

Guion Bluford

Status: Retired
11/22/1942 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 8/30/1983
Last Flight: 12/2/1992

Guion Stewart Bluford Jr., Ph.D. is an American aerospace engineer, retired U.S. Air Force officer and fighter pilot, and former NASA astronaut, who was the first African American in space.[1] Before becoming an astronaut, he was an officer in the U.S. Air Force, where he remained while assigned to NASA, rising to the rank of Colonel. He participated in four Space Shuttle flights between 1983 and 1992. In 1983, as a member of the crew of the Orbiter Challenger on the mission STS-8, he became the first African American in space as well as the second person of African ancestry in space, after Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez.

David M. Walker

Status: Deceased
5/20/1944 - 4/23/2001
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 11/8/1984
Last Flight: 9/7/1995

David Mathieson "Dave" Walker was an American naval officer and aviator, fighter pilot, test pilot, and a former NASA astronaut. He flew aboard four Space Shuttle missions in the 1980s and 1990s.

Robert D. Cabana

Status: Retired
1/23/1949 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 10/6/1990
Last Flight: 12/4/1998

Robert Donald Cabana is the director of NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center, a former NASA astronaut, and a veteran of four Space Shuttle flights. He is also a former naval flight officer and naval aviator in the United States Marine Corps.

James S. Voss

Status: Retired
3/3/1949 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 11/24/1991
Last Flight: 3/8/2001

James Shelton Voss is a retired United States Army Colonel and NASA astronaut. During his time with NASA, Voss flew in space five times on board the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. He also served as deputy of Flight Operations for the Space Station Program Mission Integration and Operations Office. While participating in ISS Expedition 2, he and Susan Helms conducted an 8-hour and 56 minute spacewalk, the longest to date.

Michael R. Clifford

Status: Retired
10/13/1952 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 12/2/1992
Last Flight: 3/22/1996

Michael Richard Uram "Rich" Clifford is a former United States Army officer and NASA astronaut. Clifford is considered a Master Army Aviator and has logged over 3,400 hours flying in a wide variety of fixed and rotary winged aircraft. Clifford retired from the U.S. Army at the rank of lieutenant colonel. He has logged over 12 hours of spacewalk time over three Space Shuttle missions. He is also one of the first people to conduct a spacewalk while docked to an orbiting space station. The spacewalk was conducted during STS-76, while docked at the Russian space station Mir.

Rocket

Space Shuttle Discovery OV-103 – 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 Discovery OV-103 was manufactured by United Space Alliance with the first launch on 1984-08-30. Space Shuttle Discovery OV-103 has 38 successful launches and 0 failed launches with a total of 38 launches. Space Shuttle Discovery is one of the orbiters from NASA’s Space Shuttle program and the third of five fully operational orbiters to be built. Its first mission, STS-41-D, flew from August 30 to September 5, 1984. Over 27 years of service it launched and landed 39 times, gathering more spaceflights than any other spacecraft to date.

Agency

Lockheed Space Operations Company – LSOC

• Type: Commercial
• Abbreviation: LSOC
• Country: USA