NAME: Owen K. Garriott (Ph.D.) NASA Astronaut

BIRTHPLACE: Born November 22, 1930, in Enid, Oklahoma. His mother, Mrs. Owen Garriott, resides in Enid.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Brown Hair; blue eyes; height: 5 feet 9 inches; weight: 145 pounds.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Enid High School; received a bachelor of science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 1953, a master of science degree and a doctorate in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1957 and 1960, respectively; and was presented and honorary doctorate of Science degree from Phillips University (Enid, Oklahoma) in 1973.

CHILDREN: Randall O., March 29, 1955; Robert K., December 7, 1956; Richard A., July 4, 1961; Linda S., September 7, 1966.

RECREATIONAL INTERESTS: His hobbies include skiing, sailing, scuba diving, and amateur radio.

ORGANIZATIONS: Fellow of the American Astronautical Society; Associate Fellow, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; Member of the American Geophysical Union, the Institute of Electronic Engineers, Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi, the International Scientific Radio Union (URSI), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

SPECIAL HONORS: National Science Foundation Fellowship at Cambridge University at the Radio Research Station at Slough, England, 1960-1961; the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1973; the City of Chicago gold Medal in 1974, the Robert J. Collier Trophy for 1973 and 1974; the Federation Aeronautique Internationale’s V.M. Komarov Diploma for 1973 in 1974; the Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy for 1975; Education for Public Management Fellowship at Stanford University, 1975-1976; and elected to the International Academy of Astronautics in 1975. Recipient of NASA Space Flight Medal (1983).

EXPERIENCE: Garriott served as an electronics officer while on active duty with the United States Navy from 1953 to 1956 and was stationed aboard several U.S. destroyers at sea.

From 1961 until 1965, he taught electronics, electromagnetic theory, and ionospheric physics as an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He has performed research in ionospheric physics since obtaining his doctorate and has authored or co-authored more than 40 scientific papers and one book on this subject. Garriot remains a consulting professor at Stanford University.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Dr. Garriott was selected as a scientist-astronaut by NASA in June 1965. He then completed a 53-week course in flight training at Williams Air Force Base, Arizona.

He has since logged over 5,000 hours flying time – including over 2,900 hours in jet aircraft and the remainder in spacecraft, light aircraft, and helicopters. In addition to NASA ratings, he holds FAA commercial pilot and flight instructor certification for instrument and multi-engine aircraft.

Dr. Garriott was a science pilot for Skylab-3 (SL-3), the second manned Skylab mission, and was in orbit first from July 28 to September 25, 1973. With him on this 59-1/2-day flight were Alan L. Bean (spacecraft commander) and Jack R. Lousma (pilot). SL-3 accomplished 150% of many mission goals while completing 858 revolutions of the Earth and traveling some 24,400,000 miles. The crew installed six replacement rate gyros used for altitude control of the spacecraft and a twin pole sunshade used for thermal control, and repaired nine major experiment or operational equipment items. They devoted 305 man-hours to extensive solar observations and completed 333 medical experiment performances to obtain valuable data on the effects of extended weightlessness on man. Skylab-3 ended with a Pacific splashdown and recovery by the USS NEW ORLEANS.

The crew of Skylab-3 logged 1,427 hours and 9 minutes each in space, setting a new world record for a single mission, and Garriot also spent 13 hours and 43 minutes in three separate extravehicular activities outside the orbital workshop.

Dr. Garriott then served as Deputy and then Director of Science and Applications, and as the Assistant Director for Space Science is the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.

Dr. Garriott was a mission specialist on STS-9/Spacelab-1 which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on November 28, 1983. Their six-man crew was the largest yet to fly aboard a single spacecraft, the first international Shuttle crew, and the first to carry payload specialists.

During this maiden flight of the European Space Agency (ESA)-developed laboratory, the crew conducted more than 70 multi-disciplinary scientific and technical investigations in the fields of life sciences, atmospheric physics and earth observations, astronomy and solar physics, space plasma physics, and materials processing. In off duty hours, the first manned amateur radio operations in space were conducted, using his station call, W5LFL. After 10-days of Spacelab hardware verification and around the clock scientific operations, Columbia and its laboratory cargo landed on the dry lakebed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on December 8, 1983.

From August 1984 until retirement from NASA in June 1986, he served as Program Scientist for the Space Station Program Office at the Johnson Space Center.