Norman
Earl Thagard, M.D. (born July 3,
1943), (Capt, USMC, Ret.), is an
American scientist and former U.S. Marine Corps officer and naval aviator and NASA astronaut. He is the first American to ride to space on board a Russian vehicle, and can be considered
the first American cosmonaut. He did this on March 14, 1995,
in the Soyuz TM-21 spacecraft
for the Russian Mir-18 mission. Thagard
held a number of research and teaching posts while completing the academic
requirements for various earned degrees. In
September 1966 he entered active duty with the United States Marine Corps
Reserve. He achieved the rank of Captain in 1967, was
designated a Naval Aviator in 1968
and was subsequently assigned to duty flying F-4 Phantom IIs with VMFA-333 at Marine Corps Air Station
Beaufort, South Carolina. He flew
163 combat missions in Vietnam while assigned to VMFA-115 from January 1969 to 1970. He returned to the
United States and an assignment as aviation weapons division officer with VMFA-251 at the Marine Corps Air Station at Beaufort,
South Carolina. Thagard resumed his academic studies in 1971, pursuing
additional studies in Electrical Engineering,
and a degree in medicine. Before joining NASA, he was
interning in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Medical
University of South Carolina. He is a licensed physician. He is a pilot and has logged more than 2,200 hours
flying time, of which the majority was in jet aircraft. Thagard was selected as an astronaut candidate
by NASA in January 1978. In August 1979, he completed a one-year training and
evaluation period, making him eligible for assignment as a Mission Specialist on
future Space Shuttle flights.
A veteran of five space flights, he logged over 140 days in space. He was a
Mission Specialist on STS-7 in 1983, STS-51-B in 1985, STS-30 in 1989, was the Payload Commander on STS-42 in 1992, and was the cosmonaut/researcher on the
Russian Mir-18 mission in 1995. Thagard first flew on the crew of STS-7, which
launched from Kennedy Space Center,
Florida, on June 18, 1983. This was the second flight for the Orbiter Challenger and
the first mission with a crew of five persons. During the mission, the STS-7
crew deployed satellites for Canada (ANIK C-2) and Indonesia (Palapa B1); operated the Canadian-built Remote Manipulator
System (RMS) to perform the first deployment and retrieval exercise with
the Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS-01);
conducted the first formation flying of the Orbiter with a free-flying
satellite (SPAS-01); carried
and operated the first U.S./German cooperative materials science payload
(OSTA-2); and operated the Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System (CFES) and
the Monodisperse Latex Reactor (MLR) experiments, in addition to activating
seven "Getaway Specials." During the flight, Thagard conducted
various medical tests and collected data on physiological changes associated
with astronaut adaptation to space. He also retrieved the rotating SPAS-01
using the RMS. Mission duration was 147 hours before landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on June 24, 1983. Thagard then flew on STS-51-B, the Spacelab-3 science mission, which launched from
Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on April 29, 1985, aboard Challenger.
He assisted the commander and pilot on ascent and entry. Mission duration was
168 hours. Duties on orbit included satellite deployment operation with the
NUSAT satellite as well as animal care for the 24 rats and two squirrel monkeys
contained in the Research Animal Holding Facility (RAHF). Other duties were
operation of the Geophysical Fluid Flow Cell (GFFC), Urinary Monitoring System (UMS) and the Ionization States of Solar and
Galactic Cosmic Ray Heavy Nuclei (IONS) experiment. After 110 orbits of
the Earth, Challenger landed at Edwards Air Force
Base, California, on May 6, 1985. He next served on the crew of STS-30, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on
May 4, 1989, aboard the Orbiter Atlantis. During this
four-day mission, crew members deployed the Magellan Venus-exploration spacecraft,
the first U.S. planetary science mission launched since 1978, and the first
planetary probe to be deployed from the Shuttle. Magellan arrived
at Venus in mid-1990 and mapped the entire surface of Venus using specialized
radar instruments. In addition, crew members also worked on secondary payloads
involving fluid research in general, chemistry and electrical storm studies.
Mission duration was 97 hours. Following 64 orbits of the Earth, the STS-30
mission concluded with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on May
8, 1989. Thagard served as Payload Commander on STS-42, aboard the orbiter Discovery, which
lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on January 22, 1992. Fifty
five major experiments conducted in the International Microgravity Laboratory-1
module were provided by investigators from eleven countries, and represented a
broad spectrum of scientific disciplines. During 128 orbits of the Earth,
the STS-42 crew accomplished the mission's primary objective
of investigating the effects of microgravity on materials processing and life
sciences. In this unique laboratory in space, crew members worked
around-the-clock in two shifts. Experiments investigated the microgravity
effects on the growth of protein and semiconductor crystals. Biological
experiments on the effects of zero gravity on plants, tissues, bacteria,
insects and human vestibular response were also conducted. This eight-day
mission culminated in a landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on
January 30, 1992. On his last mission, Thagard was a crew member for the
Russian Mir 18 mission. Twenty-eight experiments were conducted in the course
of the 115-day flight. Liftoff was from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 14, 1995. The mission culminated in a
landing at the Kennedy Space Center in the Space Shuttle Atlantis on
July 7, 1995.