Jerome Apt
- STS -37 (1991)
- STS -47 (1992)
- STS -59 (1994)
- STS -79 (1996)
Jerome " Jay" Apt III ( born April 28, 1949 in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA) is an American physicist and former astronaut.
Born in Massachusetts, Apt grew up in Pittsburgh ( Pennsylvania), where he Shadyside Academy attended after elementary school. He studied at Harvard College at Harvard University in Cambridge (Massachusetts ) physics. Following his excellent undergraduate exam 1971, he moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT ), where he worked toward his doctorate, which he received in 1976.
After his appointment to the doctor of physics Apt remained some months at MIT and conducted research in the field of laser spectroscopy. Then he went back to Harvard. At the Center for Earth & Planetary Physics, he worked on the Pioneer Venus probes, the 1978 Venus investigated. He then headed up to his move to the NASA Faculty of Applied Sciences of Harvard.
In 1980 Apt at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL ) of NASA and worked on the Earth and Space Sciences Division at questions about the solar system in general and the planets Venus and Mars in particular. A year later he was appointed director of JPL 's own observatory. The Table Mountain Facility is located in a vast wooded area near the town of Wrightwood, about 90 kilometers east of Los Angeles. 1982 Apt went to Houston ( Texas) and spent three years at the Johnson Space Center as a flight controller with shuttle missions operate.
Astronauts activity
Apt was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate in June 1985. After the one-year basic training mission specialist, he worked on techniques for the maintenance of the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station.
On April 5, 1991 Apt launched on its maiden flight (STS -37). Since the main antenna of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, which was exposed in this mission, would not let leave, led Apt and his colleague Jerry Ross on the third day of flying an exit (EVA ) by, which was not provided. Here, a jammed antenna mast has been resolved. The two made the next day a planned EVA to perform locomotion test for a Raumstationsbau. On 11 April, the mission ended at Edwards Air Force Base.
On September 12, 1992 started the mission STS -47. On board 43 experiments of various kinds were carried out, for example, it was tested whether hornets have the ability to build honeycombs under microgravity. The result was negative. Even in the medical field experiments were operated. On September 20, they landed on the shuttle runway at Kennedy Space Center.
The mission STS -59 launched on 9 April 1994. In an orbital altitude of 224 km a variety of radar and photographic recordings were made, as well as physical and biological experiments performed. On 20 April, the flight came to an end.
The launch of STS -79 to Mir took place on 16 September 1996, where the mission ended later. After coupling with the space station astronauts had a common flight of four days duration. These days, the crew member John Blaha, who returned later with STS -81 on the ground, was replaced by Shannon Lucid, who carried out a long-term stay on Mir. After the exchange of materials, the mission returned to Earth on 26 September 1996.
End of May 1997 retired from Apt from the astronaut corps and has been director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.
Private
Apt and his wife Eleanor have two daughters.