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Lichtenberg, Byron Kurt

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Lichtenberg Credit: www.spacefacts.de

Status: Inactive; Active 1978-1992. Born: 1948-02-19. Spaceflights: 2 . Total time in space: 19.25 days. Birth Place: Straudsburg, Pennsylvania.

Official NASA Biography as of June 2016:Byron K. Lichtenberg, Sc. D.
Payload Specialist

PERSONAL DATA: Born February 19, 1948 in Stroudsburg, PA. Married with 5 children, 2 adopted Chinese daughters. He is a U.S. citizen.

EDUCATION: Sc.D., Westminster College (honorary); Sc.D., biomedical engineering, MIT (1979); S.M., mechanical engineering, MIT (1975); Sc.B., aerospace engineering, Brown University (1969).

AWARDS: Awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal (two awards), the AIAA Haley Space Flight Award, and the FAI Komorov Award.

ORGANIZATIONS: Founding Member, Association of Space Explorers, X-Prize Foundation, and the International Space University. Member, User Panel for National Space Biomedical Research Institute, Tau Beta Pi (honorary engineering society), and Sigma Xi (honorary scientific society).

EXPERIENCE: From 1978 to 1984 he was a Research the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)/Canadian Vestibular experiments on Spacelab 1, Spacelab D-1, Spacelab SLS-1 and SLS-2, and a Co-principal investigator for the Mental Workload and Performance experiment flown on IML-1 to assess human-computer workstation characteristics for the Space Station.

He was a Founder of Payload Systems, Inc., a company that has provided hardware and flight support for MODE and MACE experiments for the Space Shuttle and ISS. They also were the first commercial user of the Mir Space Station, flying protein crystal growth experiments to Mir in the early 1990's. He is now President of Zero Gravity Corporation, founded to make parabolic, weightless aircraft flights available to the general public. He was an Air Force fighter pilot for 23 years, flying the F-4, F-100, and A-10. Survived 238 combat missions during the Vietnam War, and received 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 10 Air Medals, and numerous other decorations. Currently flies as a Captain for a major Airline.

SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: Lichtenberg was the first Payload specialist. He flew on Spacelab-1 (STS-9) mission (10 days in 1983), conducted multiple experiments in life sciences, materials sciences, Earth observations, astronomy and solar physics, upper atmosphere and plasma physics. His second flight was ATLAS-1 (STS-45) Spacelab mission (9 days in 1992); conducted 13 experiments in Atmospheric sciences and astronomy. He has flown 310 orbits, and has logged 468 hours in space.

OCTOBER 2002

This is the only version available from NASA. Updates must be sought direct from the above named individual.

Official Biography

NAME: Byron Kurt Lichtenberg

BIRTHPLACE AND DATE: Lictenberg was born February 19, 1948, in Straudsburg, Pennsylvania, and graduated from high school there in 1965.

EDUCATION: Bachelor of Science in aerospace engineering, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, 1969. Master of Science in mechanical engineering in 1975 and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering in 1979 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

EXPERIENCE: Lictenberg joined the U.S. Air Force via ROTC. After graduation from Brown he trained as a pilot at Williams AFB, Arizona, earning his wings in 1970. For the next three years he was an F-4 pilot, flying 138 combat missions with the 25th Tactical Fighter Squadron based at Ubon, Thailand. He left active duty in 1973 and returned to college.

In 1977 Lichtenberg applied for the NASA astronaut group but was not chosen. In 1978, he was selected as a Spacelab payload specialist.

Following his flights on Spacelab, Lichtenberg co-founded Payload Systems, a company devoted to the commercial uses of space. PSI experiments have flown aboard the Russian Mir space station.

Thereafter, Lichtenberg was President of Omega Aerospace, Inc. and was a pilot for Southwest Airlines. He served as a Board member for the Association of Space Explorers and the National Space Society. Lichtenberg was also an A-10 fighter pilot with the Massachusetts Air National Guard.

Photo Gallery

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STS-9 Payload Specialist Byron K. Lichtenberg working in the Spacelab Credit: NASA

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• Birth of Dr Byron Kurt Lichtenberg - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Lichtenberg. American engineer payload specialist astronaut 1978-1992. Flew 138 combat missions in Vietnam. 2 spaceflights, 19.2 days in space. Flew to orbit on STS-9 (1983), STS-45..

• STS-9 - . Call Sign: Columbia. Crew: Garriott, Lichtenberg, Merbold, Parker, Shaw, Young. Payload: Columbia F06 / Spacelab 1 Pallet. Mass: 15,088 kg (33,263 lb). Nation: USA. Related Persons: Garriott, Lichtenberg, Merbold, Parker, Shaw, Young. Agency: NASA Houston. Program: STS. Class: Manned. Type: Manned spaceplane. Flight: STS-9. Spacecraft Bus: Shuttle. Spacecraft: Columbia. Duration: 10.32 days. Decay Date: 1983-12-08 . USAF Sat Cat: 14523 . COSPAR: 1983-116A. Apogee: 254 km (157 mi). Perigee: 241 km (149 mi). Inclination: 57.00 deg. Period: 89.50 min.

  Carried ESA Spacelab. Payloads: Payload: Spacelab-1 experiments, habitable Spacelab and pallet, carried 71 experiments. The six-man crew was divided into two 12-hour-day red and blue teams to operate experiments. First high-inclination orbit of 57 degrees.

• Landing of STS-9 - . Return Crew: Garriott, Lichtenberg, Merbold, Parker, Shaw, Young. Nation: USA. Related Persons: Garriott, Lichtenberg, Merbold, Parker, Shaw, Young. Program: Spacelab. Flight: STS-9. STS-9 landed at 23:47 GMT. .

• STS-61-K (cancelled) - . Crew: Brand, Garriott, Griggs, Lampton, Lichtenberg, Nicollier, Stevenson, Stewart. Backup Crew: Chappell, Frimout. Payload: EOM-1/2. Nation: USA. Program: STS. Flight: STS-61-K. Spacecraft Bus: Shuttle. Spacecraft: Columbia. Planned EOM-1 shuttle mission. Cancelled after Challenger disaster. No crew named, later combined with STS-61K.

• STS-45 - . Call Sign: Atlantis. Crew: Bolden, Duffy, Foale, Frimout, Leestma, Lichtenberg, Sullivan. Payload: Atlantis F11 / Atlas 1 Fwd. Mass: 8,020 kg (17,680 lb). Nation: USA. Related Persons: Bolden, Duffy, Foale, Frimout, Leestma, Lichtenberg, Sullivan. Agency: NASA Houston. Program: STS. Class: Manned. Type: Manned spaceplane. Flight: STS-45. Spacecraft Bus: Shuttle. Spacecraft: Atlantis. Duration: 8.92 days. Decay Date: 1992-04-02 . USAF Sat Cat: 21915 . COSPAR: 1992-015A. Apogee: 294 km (182 mi). Perigee: 282 km (175 mi). Inclination: 57.00 deg. Period: 90.30 min.

  Manned seven crew. Carried ATLAS-1 experimental package. Payloads: Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS)-1, Shuttle Solar Backscat-ter Ultraviolet (SSBUV)-4, Getaway Special Experiment G-229, Space Tissue Loss (STL)-1, Radiation Monitoring Equipment (RME)-lIl, Visual Function Tester (VFT)-lI, Cloud Logic To Opti-mize Use of Defense Systems (CLOUDS)-1A, Investigations Into Polymer Membrane Process-ing (IPMP), Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment (SAREX)-Il, Ultraviolet Plume Instrument (UVPl).

• Landing of STS-45 - . Return Crew: Bolden, Duffy, Foale, Frimout, Leestma, Lichtenberg, Sullivan. Nation: USA. Related Persons: Bolden, Duffy, Foale, Frimout, Leestma, Lichtenberg, Sullivan. Program: Spacelab. Flight: STS-45. STS-45 landed at 11:21 GMT. .