William B. Lenoir
- STS -5 ( 1982)
William Benjamin "Bill" Lenoir ( born March 14, 1939 in Miami, Florida; † August 26, 2010 in Albuquerque, New Mexico) was an American astronaut.
Life
Lenoir graduated in 1961 with a bachelor's degree and in 1962 with a Masters in Electrical Engineering from each of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1965 he completed his doctoral studies to the Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. From 1964 to 1965, Lenoir instructor at MIT, where he became in 1965 assistant professor of electrical engineering.
Astronauts activity
In August 1967, Lenoir was selected as an astronaut by NASA science. During his training he completed flight training at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas. Lenoir was in the backup crew for the Skylab missions Skylab 3 and 4, which were the second and third manned mission to the Skylab space station.
From September 1974 to July 1976 Lenoir worked among other things in a project of NASA for a power plant in space.
STS -5
As a mission specialist Lenoir launched on 11 November 1982 with the Space Shuttle Columbia to its single flight into space. This mission was the first flight of a space shuttle, were exposed to the commercial satellite. Besides the two communications satellites and various experiments was also the first spacewalk by a Space Shuttle on the program. After an illness of Lenoir's exit, however, was first postponed by one day and eventually canceled after problems with the spacesuits. After five days Lenoir ended up with Columbia at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
According to the NASA
Lenoir retired in 1984 from NASA and joined the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. Between June 1989 and April 1992, he again worked for NASA's management and was then vice president of Applied Systems at Booz Allen Hamilton.
Private
William Lenoir was married twice and has three children. His first wife Elizabeth Frost was 1979-1984 Mayor of El Lago ( Harris County, Texas) His second wife Terri Waite worked as an engineer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He died after a bicycle accident to his head injury.