Byron K. Lichtenberg
- STS -9 ( 1983)
- STS -45 ( 1992)
Byron Kurt Lichtenberg ( born February 19, 1948 in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, USA) is an American scientist. He has participated as a payload specialist on two space flights on the Space Shuttle.
Start of career
Lichtenberg graduated in on the Westminster College.
He then became a member of the U.S. Air Force and flew 238 combat missions in the Vietnam War with aircraft type F - 4, F -100 and A- tenth
Then he studied aviation and aerospace engineering at Brown University and graduated in 1969 with a Bachelor successfully, then he studied mechanical engineering and graduated in 1975 with the master off, and then he was still studying biomedical engineering and graduated in 1979 with a doctorate.
Space flights
STS -9
His first and longest space missions had Lichtenberg as payload specialist of STS- 9 from November 28 to December 8, 1983 with the Space Shuttle Columbia in which for the first time the space laboratory Spacelab was carried. Under the command of astronaut legend John Young, who for the sixth time was the first human on this mission into space, it was the first space flight with six astronauts. At the same time, this was the first NASA mission in which a non-American, Ulf Merbold was a member of the crew and also his first space flight took it.
The flight was from a scientific point of view a great success, because by the carrying of the Spacelab were more experiments will be carried out successfully than all the Apollo and Skylab missions put together.
Lichtenberg was so together with Merbold the first payload specialist, who was launched into space.
STS 51 -H
STS -51- H was an Atlantis mission, which was canceled before the Challenger disaster. The EOM -1 Shuttle mission was scheduled for November 1985. Besides Lichtenberg Vance Brand, Michael J.Smith, Robert Springer, Owen Garriott, and the second payload specialist Michael Lampton were planned.
STS 61- K
STS -61- K was a Columbia mission, which was canceled due to the Challenger disaster. The EOM -1 Shuttle mission was scheduled for October 1986. Besides Lichtenberg Vance Brand, David Griggs, Robert Stewart, Owen Garriott, Claude Nicollier, Michael Lampton and Robert Stevenson were planned.
STS -45
In this mission, the Atlantis was used for a flight into space. Lichtenberg was again one of the payload specialists of this mission.
The mission carried the first Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science ( ATLAS -1) on two Spacelab pallets in the cargo bay of the shuttle. The installed in the payload bay cargo consisted of twelve instruments from the U.S., France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Japan. There have been studies in the areas of atmospheric chemistry, solar radiation, plasma physics and ultraviolet astronomy. Other research projects were carried out, among others, the Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Experiment ( SSBUV ) and the Get Away Special Experiment ( GAS ) of Lichtenberg.
After the flights
Lichtenberg is co-founder of Payload Systems, Inc., provides the components of the missions of the MIR, ISS and the Space Shuttle.
Moreover, Lichtenberg co-founder of Zero Gravity Corporation, which offers parabolic flights. These flights can be simulated weightlessness for a short time.
Summary
Private
Lichtenberg is married and has five children and two adopted Chinese daughters also.