Jim Wetherbee

• STS -32 ( 1990)
• STS -52 (1992)
• STS -63 (1995)
• STS -86 (1997)
• STS- 102 (2001)
• STS- 113 (2002)

James Donald Wetherbee ( born November 27, 1952 in Flushing, Queens, New York City, USA) is a former American astronaut.

Wetherbee was born in Flushing, but he grew up 60 miles away, in the small town of Huntington Station, where his parents still live. According to a Catholic high school he attended the Catholic University of Notre Dame in Indiana. There he studied aviation and aerospace engineering and received a bachelor's degree in 1974. (U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was at the same time at Notre Dame University enrolled ).

Immediately after graduating Wetherbee joined the U.S. Navy, where he made career as a naval aviator. After training as a pilot, he served three years on the aircraft carrier " USS John F. Kennedy " until you trained him from 1980 at the United States Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River ( Maryland) as a test pilot. Subsequently, he was involved in various management positions with the further development of the fighter aircraft F/A-18 " Hornet ". Beginning of 1984 he came to the 132nd Combat Squadron at Naval Air Station Lemoore in California, where he worked as an astronaut to his attitude.

Astronauts activity

Wetherbee came in May 1984 as an astronaut candidate for NASA. He had always wanted to take up this profession, but was aware that the chances would be very small. Although he felt very comfortable in the Navy, he had his desire to become an astronaut, always in mind. It was his wife who encouraged him to apply at NASA. He was a test pilot when he finally submitted his documents and was accepted in his first attempt.

After completion of basic training in June 1985 until the Challenger disaster in January 1986, he worked as CapCom the mission control center.

His first appointment for a space shuttle mission in November 1988 as a pilot on STS -32. Destination of the flight in January 1990, in addition to launching a communications satellite Intelsat series capturing the research platform LDEF, who spent nearly six years in space.

First appointed as a pilot for STS -46, we transferred Wetherbee in the fall of 1991, his first command: STS -52 in October 1992 with the space shuttle Columbia began the Italian-American satellites LAGEOS -2 from. Also, the " United States Microgravity Payload ( USMP -1) " were performed three microgravity experiments in the U.S. and France on board in the frame.

Only a year after STS -52 Wetherbee was designed for his third mission. STS -63 wrote early February 1995 space history, as the crew of Commander Wetherbee during the flight ( with pilot Eileen Collins piloted by a woman for the first time ) with the Russian station Mir performed the first rendezvous of a space shuttle.

In the fall of 1997 Wetherbee led the mission STS -86. It was the ninth flight as part of the Shuttle -Mir program, which had the seventh coupling of a shuttle to the Mir station to the destination. The Atlantis ferry took supplies and the replacement for Michael Foale to the space station. Astronaut Foale had been working on board since May and has now been replaced by David Wolf.

Until his next space flight Wetherbee worked in the administration: since the fall of 1995, he spent five years as Deputy Director of the Johnson Space Center (JSC ).

Wetherbees fifth flight took place as commander of STS- 102 in March 2001. The discovery brought a fresh crew equipment and under construction International Space Station ( ISS). For this was in the cargo compartment of the orbiter, the Leonardo module, which housed the majority of the payloads to be delivered. The shuttle crew brought the second crew to the ISS and took the first team after 140 days service again.

As Wetherbee launched in late 2002 with STS -113 to his last space flight, he was the first astronaut who had conducted five missions. The Endeavour brought the P1- carrier to the ISS. In three exits the 12 -ton structure was attached to the space station. In addition, the 6th ISS crew replaced the ISS Expedition 5 from.

Jim Wetherbee joined 2003 from the U.S. Navy and left NASA in early 2005. He and his wife Robin have two daughters.