Payload specialist

Short description: Person trained for flights of a specific payload on a NASA Space Shuttle mission

Ukrainian astronaut Leonid Kadenyuk seen with a badge of payload specialist on the left side of his chest

A payload specialist (PS) was an individual selected and trained by commercial or research organizations for flights of a specific payload on a NASA Space Shuttle mission. People assigned as payload specialists included individuals selected by the research community, a company or consortium flying a commercial payload aboard the spacecraft, and non-NASA astronauts designated by international partners.

The term refers to both the individual and to the position on the Shuttle crew.

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Criticism
* 3 List of all payload specialists
* 4 Backup payload specialists
* 5 Other statistics
* 5.1 Multiple flights
* 5.2 Nationalities
* 5.3 Payload specialists who later trained as mission specialists
* 6 See also
* 7 Notes
* 8 References
* 9 External links

## History

Main article: Astronomy:Astronaut ranks and positions

The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 states that NASA should provide the "widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and the results thereof". The Naugle panel of 1982 concluded that carrying civilians—those not part of the NASA Astronaut Corps—on the Space Shuttle was part of "the purpose of adding to the public's understanding of space flight".[1]

Payload specialists usually fly for a single specific mission. Chosen outside the standard NASA mission specialist selection process, they are exempt from certain NASA requirements such as colorblindness. Roger K. Crouch[2] and Ulf Merbold are examples of those who flew in space despite not meeting NASA physical requirements;[3]: 63 the agency's director of crew training Jim Bilodeau said in April 1981 "we'll be able to take everybody but the walking wounded".[4] Payload specialists were not required to be United States citizens, but had to be approved by NASA and undergo rigorous but shorter training. In contrast, a Space Shuttle mission specialist was selected as a NASA astronaut first and then assigned to a mission.

Payload specialists on early missions were technical experts to join specific payloads such as a commercial or scientific satellite. On Spacelab and other missions with science components, payload specialists were scientists with expertise in specific experiments. The term also applied to representatives from partner nations who were given the opportunity of a first flight on board of the Space Shuttle (such as Saudi Arabia and Mexico), to Congressmen and the Teacher in Space program. Under Secretary of the Air Force Edward C. Aldridge Jr. was offered a seat to improve relations between NASA and the United States Air Force.

NASA expected to also fly "citizen astronauts", ordinary Americans who could describe space to others. In August 1984 President Ronald Reagan announced the Teacher in Space Project, the first such program. NASA expected to fly reporters (Journalist in Space Project), entertainers, and creative types later.[5]

NASA categorized full-time international astronauts as payload specialists unless they received NASA mission specialist training, which some did.[3]: 63 Bilodeau estimated that payload specialists would receive a couple of hundred hours of training over four or five weeks.[4] International or scientific payload specialists were generally assigned a back-up who trained alongside the primary payload specialist and would replace them in the event of illness or other disability. Both primary and backup payload specialists received mission-specific and general training. Michael Lampton estimated that about 20% of his training was general, including firefighter school, capsule communicator duty, and use of Personal Egress Air Packs and the space toilet. He described training for Spacelab 1 as "going back to graduate school but majoring in everything"; as the first mission it tested Spacelab's versatility in "medical, metallurgical, remote sensing, astronomy, microgravity, lots more".[3]: 59–60

Payload specialists operated experiments, and participated in experiments needing human subjects. Charles D. Walker recalled that Senator Jake Garn "and I were the obvious subjects" for Rhea Seddon's echocardiograph on STS-51-D. "We really didn't have much of a choice in whether we were going to be subjects or not. 'You're a payload specialist; you’re going to be a subject.'" Besides his own electrophoresis work, Walker operated an unrelated experiment for the University of Alabama Birmingham, and helped build homemade repair tools for a satellite launched on the mission.[6]

Payload specialists were flown from 1983 (STS-9) to 2003 (STS-107). The last flown payload specialist was the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, who was killed in the Columbia disaster on mission STS-107 with the rest of the crew.

## Criticism

Within NASA, Johnson Space Center (JSC) controlled crewed spaceflight by selecting professional, full-time astronauts. The payload specialist program gave Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)—which supervised Spacelab, including a contracted European Space Agency-chosen payload specialist—control as well, causing conflicts. JSC director Chris Kraft and members of the NASA astronaut corps believed that mission specialists—many with doctoral degrees or other scientific background, and all with full-time astronaut training—could operate all experiments. Rick Chappell, chief scientist of MSFC, believed that the scientific community insisted on its own scientists being able to operate experiments in exchange for support of the Space Shuttle program. While mission specialists could operate most experiments, "Since we could take passengers, why not take at least a couple of passengers who had spent their whole careers doing the kind of research they were going to do in space?" he said.[3]: 9–10, 15, 18, 28–29, 48

During the Space Shuttle design process, some said that crews should be no larger than four people; both for safety, and because a commander, pilot, mission specialist, and payload specialist were sufficient for any mission. NASA expected to fly more payload specialists so it designed a larger vehicle.[1] Only NASA astronauts piloted the space shuttle, but mission specialist astronauts worried about competing with American and international payload specialists for very limited flight opportunities. In 1984 about 45 mission specialists competed for about 15 seats on the five shuttle flights. Only three payload specialists flew that year, but in 1985 eight of nine shuttle flights carried 15 payload specialists (Walker flying twice), no doubt angering mission specialists. Some payload specialists like Walker and Byron Lichtenberg were rejected as full-time astronauts but flew as payload specialists before many selected as such, and some may have flown without understanding the level of danger. Many astronauts worried that without years of training together they would not be able to trust payload specialists in an emergency; Henry Hartsfield described their concern as "If you had a problem on orbit, am I going to have to babysit this person?" NASA's preference for its own training caused the agency to offer some international payload specialists the opportunity to become mission specialists, the first being Claude Nicollier.[3]: 40–44, 48–50, 61–63

Those skeptical of the payload specialist program were less critical of scientists and experts like Walker than non-expert passengers ("part-timers", according to Mike Mullane, who called the program public relations-driven and immoral in Riding Rockets) like Garn, US Representative Bill Nelson, and other civilians such as Teacher in Space Christa McAuliffe. They saw Senator John Glenn as a passenger despite being a former Mercury Seven astronaut.[3]: 40, 51 [7] A 1986 post-Challenger article in The Washington Post reviewed the issue, reporting that as far back as 1982, NASA was concerned with finding reasonable justifications for flying civilians on the Shuttle as was directed by the Reagan administration. The article says that "A review of records and interviews with past and present NASA and government officials shows the civilian program's controversial background, with different groups pushing for different approaches".[1] The article concludes with:

> Author Tom Wolfe, who chronicled the early days of the space program in The Right Stuff, wrote after the Challenger explosion that support for the citizen program, and therefore McAuliffe's place aboard the ill-fated shuttle, was part of an insiders' battle. NASA civilians, pitting themselves against the professional astronauts, used the program for the "dismantling of Astropower", which Wolfe described as "the political grip the original breed of fighter-pilot test-pilot astronauts had on NASA."[1]

Payload specialists were aware of full-time astronauts' dislike of the program. Garn advised STS-51-D colleague Jeffrey A. Hoffman to not play poker because, the astronaut quoted, "'It took you a while to disguise your initial skepticism about this whole thing'". Merbold said that at JSC he was treated as an intruder. Once payload specialists were assigned to a mission, however, full-time astronauts treated them respectfully and often began long-term friendships. Mullane became less critical of them after his first mission; he and Hartsfield approved of Walker, as did Hoffman of Garn after STS-51-D.[3]: 40, 48, 50–52

## List of all payload specialists

Payload specialist  | Mission  | Sponsor

|
|

Ulf Merbold  | STS-9 | European Space Agency
Byron K. Lichtenberg  | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Charles D. Walker  | STS-41-D | McDonnell Douglas
Marc Garneau  | STS-41-G | Canadian Space Agency
Paul Scully-Power | United States Navy
Gary Payton  | STS-51-C | Manned Spaceflight Engineer Program
Charles D. Walker  | STS-51-D | McDonnell Douglas
Jake Garn  | United States Congress
Lodewijk van den Berg  | STS-51-B | EG&G
Taylor Wang  | Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Patrick Baudry  | STS-51-G | CNES (France)
Sultan bin Salman Al Saud  | Royal Saudi Air Force
Loren Acton | STS-51-F | Lockheed
John-David F. Bartoe  | United States Navy
William A. Pailes  | STS-51-J | Manned Spaceflight Engineer Program
Reinhard Furrer | STS-61-A | German Aerospace Center
Ernst Messerschmid | German Aerospace Center
Wubbo Ockels  | European Space Agency
Rodolfo Neri Vela  | STS-61-B | Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (Mexico)
Charles D. Walker  | McDonnell Douglas
Robert J. Cenker | STS-61-C | RCA
Bill Nelson  | United States Congress
Gregory Jarvis  | STS-51-L | Hughes Space and Communications
Christa McAuliffe  | Teacher in Space Project
Samuel T. Durrance | STS-35 | Johns Hopkins University
Ronald A. Parise  | Computer Sciences Corporation
F. Drew Gaffney  | STS-40 | NASA
Millie Hughes-Fulford  | United States Department of Veterans Affairs
Thomas J. Hennen  | STS-44 | United States Army
Roberta Bondar  | STS-42 | Canadian Space Agency
Ulf Merbold  | European Space Agency
Byron K. Lichtenberg  | STS-45 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dirk Frimout  | European Space Agency
Lawrence J. DeLucas  | STS-50 | University of Alabama at Birmingham
Eugene H. Trinh  | Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Franco Malerba  | STS-46 | Italian Space Agency
Mamoru Mohri  | STS-47 | National Space Development Agency of Japan
Steve MacLean  | STS-52 | Canadian Space Agency
Ulrich Walter  | STS-55 | German Aerospace Center
Hans Schlegel  | German Aerospace Center
Martin J. Fettman  | STS-58 | Colorado State University
Chiaki Mukai  | STS-65 | National Space Development Agency of Japan
Samuel T. Durrance | STS-67 | Johns Hopkins University
Ronald A. Parise  | Computer Sciences Corporation
Frederick W. Leslie  | STS-73 | Marshall Space Flight Center
Albert Sacco  | Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Umberto Guidoni  | STS-75 | Italian Space Agency
Jean-Jacques Favier  | STS-78 | CNES (France)
Robert Thirsk  | Canadian Space Agency
Roger K. Crouch  | STS-83 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Gregory T. Linteris  | National Institute of Standards and Technology
Roger K. Crouch  | STS-94 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Gregory T. Linteris  | National Institute of Standards and Technology
Bjarni Tryggvason  | STS-85 | Canadian Space Agency
Leonid Kadeniuk | STS-87 | State Space Agency of Ukraine
Jay C. Buckey  | STS-90 | Dartmouth College
James A. Pawelczyk  | Pennsylvania State University
Chiaki Mukai  | STS-95 | National Space Development Agency of Japan
John Glenn | United States Congress
Ilan Ramon  | STS-107 | Israel Space Agency

## Backup payload specialists

The following list are people who were named as backup (also known as alternate) payload specialists. These people typically received the same training as the "prime" crew payload specialist, but did not fly on the mission. However, many would go on to fly on other missions as "prime" crew payload or mission specialists.

Payload specialist  | Mission  | Notes

|
|

Wubbo Ockels  | STS-9 | flew on STS-61-A
Michael Lampton  |
Robert Thirsk  | STS-41-G | flew on STS-78
Robert E. Stevenson  |
Keith Wright  | STS-51-C |
Mary Johnston  | STS-51-B |
Eugene H. Trinh  | flew on STS-50
Jean-Loup Chrétien  | STS-51-G | flew on STS-86 as a mission specialist
Abdulmohsen Al-Bassam  |
George W. Simon  | STS-51-F |
Dianne K. Prinz
Ulf Merbold  | STS-61-A | flew on STS-9, STS-42
Barbara Morgan  | STS-51-L | flew on STS-118 as a mission specialist
Robert W. Phillips  | STS-40 |
Michael Lampton  | STS-45 |
Charles R. Chappell
Joseph M. Prahl  | STS-50 |
Albert Sacco  | flew on STS-73
Jean-Jacques Favier  | STS-65 | flew on STS-78
David H. Matthiesen  | STS-73 |
R. Glynn Holt
Pedro Duque  | STS-78 | flew on STS-95 as a mission specialist
Luca Urbani  |
Alan Johnston  | STS-83 |
Paul Ronney
Alan Johnston  | STS-94 |
Paul Ronney
Yaroslav Pustovyi[8] | STS-87 |
Alexander W. Dunlap  | STS-90 |
Chiaki Mukai  | flew on STS-65, STS-95

## Other statistics

### Multiple flights

Flights  | Payload specialist

|

3  | Charles Walker
2  | Ulf Merbold, Byron K. Lichtenberg, Samuel T. Durrance, Ronald A. Parise, Chiaki Mukai, Roger Crouch, Greg Linteris

### Nationalities

Flights  | Country

|

36  |  United States
6  |  Germany[lower-alpha 1]
5  |  Canada
3  |  Japan
2  |  France
Italy
1  |  Saudi Arabia
Netherlands
Mexico
Belgium
Ukraine
Israel

### Payload specialists who later trained as mission specialists

All were international astronauts.

* Marc Garneau – mission specialist on STS-77, STS-97
* Mamoru Mohri – mission specialist on STS-99
* Steven MacLean – mission specialist on STS-115
* Hans Schlegel – mission specialist on STS-122
* Umberto Guidoni – mission specialist on STS-100
* Robert Thirsk – flight engineer on Soyuz TMA-15 and Expedition 20
* Bjarni Tryggvason – completed training, retired in June 2008 without flying again

## See also

* List of human spaceflights
* List of Space Shuttle missions
* List of Space Shuttle crews
* Shenzhou 16 – the first time of mission has the position of Payload specialist in China Manned Space Program
* Gui Haichao – the first payload specialist and the first civilian taikonaut in this Program

## Notes

1. ↑ West Germany until 1990.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Pincus, Walter (1986-03-05). "NASA's Push to Put Citizen in Space Overtook Fully 'Operational' Shuttle" (in en-US). Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/03/05/nasas-push-to-put-citizen-in-space-overtook-fully-operational-shuttle/29fe2714-39b7-40dd-b15e-073441de636e/.
2. ↑ Collins, Debbie. "The Power of Persistence" (in en). https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/home/F_The_Power_of_Persistence_K-4.html.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Croft, Melvin; Youskauskas, John (2019). Come Fly with Us: NASA's Payload Specialist Program. Outward Odyssey: a People's History of Spaceflight. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-1-4962-1225-2.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Stevens, William K. (1981-04-06). "New Generation of Astronauts Poised for Shuttle Era" (in en-US). The New York Times: p. A1. ISSN 0362-4331. https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/06/us/new-generation-of-astronauts-poised-for-shuttle-era.html.
5. ↑ Boffey, Philip M. (1984-11-09). "A Space Inspection" (in en-US). The New York Times: p. A29. ISSN 0362-4331. https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/09/us/a-space-inspection.html.
6. ↑ Walker, Charles D. (14 April 2005). "Oral History Transcript". NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project (Interview). Interviewed by Johnson, Sandra.
7. ↑ Oberg, James. "NASA hypes "Glenn Mission" Science". https://www.jamesoberg.com/glenn.html.
8. ↑ Ramsay, Janis (21 February 2015). "Barrie astronaut continues to keep eye on skies". Barrie Advance. https://www.simcoe.com/news-story/5344893-barrie-astronaut-continues-to-keep-eye-on-skies/.

## External links

* Biographies of Payload Specialists on NASA web site.

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payload specialist. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Biography:Payload_specialist&oldid=3974660"