Loren Acton
- STS -51 F ( 1985)
Loren Wilber Acton ( born March 7, 1936 in Lewistown, Montana, United States) is an American physicist. He has participated in a shuttle mission as a payload specialist.
Training
Acton was born the son of a cattle breeder, the youngest of six children. After high school he worked from 1954 for two years at Multnomah School of the Bible in Portland ( Oregon) with theology. He then studied engineering at Montana State University in Bozeman. After he had done his bachelor in 1959, he studied at the University of Colorado on. His field of study was Physics Planetary Geology with a focus on the sun. Acton received his doctorate in 1965. The topic of his dissertation was " X -Radiation of the Sun" ( " The X-rays of the Sun" ).
Research
After studying Acton went to California in 1964. At Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory, he was there almost 30 years at the scientific staff. In 1993 he left the Space Sciences Laboratory and participated in a research professor at Montana State University. He still works there in the Department of Physics.
In addition, Acton since 1964 as a leading scientist at NASA solar research program involved ( between 1988 and 1991 he was part of the Space Science and Applications Advisory Committee of NASA). He has contributed experiments for eight sounding rockets, among others, and has (Solar Maximum Mission ) developed an X-ray machine (X -ray polychromator ) for the solar research satellites SMM.
His only space flight
Acton was a member of the crew of STS- 51 -F. It was the third Spacelab mission - the first time no module, but only pallets was used - and was carried out from 29 July to 6 August 1985. Acton had a crucial experiment for the eight-day Spacelab - 2 mission developed in cooperation with Dr. Alan Title: the Solar Optical Universal Polarimeter ( SOUP ) to study the magnetic field of the sun, he was in charge during the flight. In addition to Acton Dr. John David Francis Bartoe belonged ( astrophysicist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory) as payload specialist of the crew.
Private
Acton married in 1957 Evelyn Oldenburg, with whom he has a daughter and a son.