William F. Readdy
- STS -42 ( 1992)
- STS -51 ( 1993)
- STS -79 (1996)
William Francis "Bill" Readdy ( born January 24, 1952 in Quonset Point, Rhode Iceland, United States) is a former American astronaut.
Readdy received a bachelor's degree in aeronautics and aerospace engineering from the United States Naval Academy in 1974.
In the United States Navy Readdy was trained as a naval aviator. From 1976 to 1980 he was stationed on the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic. In 1980, he was trained as a test pilot and used as a test pilot and instructor for test pilots until 1984. He was then transferred to the USS Coral Sea for operations in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean.
Astronauts activity
In 1986 he joined as a research pilot for NASA on the airfield Ellington Field, where he worked as a program manager for the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. In June 1987, he was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate. At NASA, he was Training Officer, Safety Officer, Head of Operations Development, Director of Operations in Zvezdny Gorodok near Moscow, a member of the Stafford Task Force and the first manager of the Space Shuttle Program Development, responsible for improvements to the Space Shuttle. He was also Associate Administrator at NASA Headquarters for the Office of Space Flight, which coordinates the various NASA centers and the current space programs.
STS -42
On 22 January 1992 Readdy started as a mission specialist of Discovery for the first time into space. In the payload bay of the Space Shuttle there was the Microgravity Laboratory IML -1. The Spacelab module contained experiments to explore the complex effects of weightlessness on living organisms and other materials. In order to conduct experiments around the clock, the crew worked in shifts. Readdy formed together with Hilmer and the German Ulf Merbold the red team, while Thagard, grave, Oswald and Bondar made the blue team.
STS -51
On September 12, 1993 Readdy began as a pilot of the Discovery during the STS- 51 into space. He sat there from the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite ( ACTS) and the Shuttle Pallet Satellite ( ORFEUS -SPAS ). The latter had American and German scientific experiments including an ultraviolet spectrometer on board. In a seven-hour spacewalk proven Carl Walz and James Newman tools and methods to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. After ORFEUS -SPAS was flown free for six days and thereby about 65 km away from the Discovery had, he was finally captured with the help of the shuttle robotic arm again. After 158 orbits around Earth, the Discovery landed the first shuttle in the night at the Kennedy Space Center.
STS -79
Readdy started as a shuttle commander on 16 September 1996 to the space station Mir from Kennedy Space Center, where the mission ended again later. The Space Shuttle Atlantis was docked four days at the space station. In this mission, the Mir crew member Shannon Lucid, John Blaha of which flew back with STS -81 was replaced. After the exchange of supplies and experiments, the space shuttle returned after ten days on September 26 back to Earth.
According to the NASA
In October 2005 Readdy retired from NASA and founded with Discovery Partners International, a consulting firm for aerospace.
Private
William Readdy is married and has three children.