Robert Parker, NASA astronautUPI ARCHIVES AUG. 30, 1990
When Robert Parker was selected as an astronaut, Lyndon Johnson was president, the war in Vietnam was escalating and the Apollo moon program had yet to get off the ground.
An astronomer by training, Parker waited 16 years for his first flight in 1983 and seven more for his second this week aboard the shuttle Columbia when he finally will be able to put his; s cleared for another launch try this week.
But for Parker, 53, the wait has been worth it.
'Astronomy is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the space program,' he said in an interview before the May launch attempt. 'The ozone layer protects us very nicely from those ultraviolet rays but we astronomers would just as soon put on our solar screen and go outside and observe all the other energies the atmosphere screens out for us.'
The goal of Columbia's 'Astro-1' mission is to study X-rays and UV radiation from deep space that is blocked by Earth's atmosphere.
'Every time we've looked into one of these new regions of the spectrum, we found things we didn't expect,' he said. 'No one expected galaxies to be radiating radio waves.
'We will go into one region of the spectrum that has not been explored at all, and that is the far ultraviolet. We don't know what we can expect to see there. We've never really flown a significant amount of ultraviolet imaging in space before.'
Data from Columbia's mission, coupled with that from the Hubble Space Telescope and other orbital observatories, promise to revolutionize modern astronomy. But Parker said it is 'nonsense' to expect too much.
'Astronomers have been thinking they were going to find the answer to the expanding universe ever since they went out and got money for the 200-inch (Mount Palomar) telescope,' he said. 'Well that didn't answer it. I don't knowso aboard Columbia, Parker said he sought the job as a spaceman because he decided it might be a 'fun way to live.' While he waited 16 years for his first taste of space, he had plenty to do on Earth.
'It's been an exciting 16 years. All of us would like to have flown more, sooner and more often. But I never was to the point of thinking 'Gee, I'm not going to get to fly.' There was always something you were working on,' Parker said.
'I would go so far as to say even if I never flew, the excitement, the challenge and the fun of having been down here and gone through these things that very few people have been able to do is reward enough.'
Parker was a member of the astronaut support crews for the Apollo 15 and 17 moon landing missions and served as program scientist for the Skylab program director's office during the three manned Skylab flights.
He began preparing for his 1983 shuttle flight in 1975, the same year his current commander, Vance Brand, blasted off on his first mission, a joint U.S.-Soviet orbital linkup called the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.
Prior to his selection to the astronaut corps in 1967, Parker, of Shrewsbury, Mass., was an associate professor of astronomy at the University of Wisconsin.
'I never thought of being an astronaut. We did not have such things very much in those days and I really never was big on Buck Rogers,' he said.
'I was happily teaching astronomy, which is what I expected to do all my life. My father was a physics professor and I had gotten a Ph.D.mnology in 1962.
He married the former Judy Woodruff of San Marino, Calif. They have five children and five grandchildren.
In his limited spare time, Parker's favorite hobby is horseback riding at a dude ranch in Durango, Colo.
'By now I must have a part ownership. I go up there and ride horses once or twice a year.'https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/08/30/Robert-Parker-NASA-astronaut/2197651988800/https://twitter.com/nasahistory/status/809035217558237187#HappyBirthday to astronaut Robert Parker (r), who worked on Spacelab & Astro-1 as mission specialist for Shuttle missions STS-9 & STS-35
Altair Enterprises @altair_ent 9:11 AM · Dec 14, 2021
Robert Allan Ridley Parker is an American #physicist and #astronomer, former Director of the #NASA Management Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and a retired NASA #astronaut.
He has logged 463 hours in space.
Image source: http://esa.int
#altairent #birthday
https://x.com/altair_ent/status/147066764148446413455 Years Ago: NASA Selects 11 Scientist-AstronautsJohn Uri Johnson Space Center AUG 03, 2022
On Aug. 4, 1967, NASA and the National Academy of Sciences announced the selection of 11 new scientist-astronauts. Chosen from 923 applicants, the Group 6 astronauts included three medical doctors, three astronomers, two physicists, one geophysicist, one electrical engineer, and one chemist. After initial orientation and academic instruction, in March 1968 the group began 13 months of jet pilot training, during which two elected to resign. The rest returned to NASA in April 1969 and received technical assignments in the Astronaut Office, supporting either the Apollo Program or the Apollo Applications Program, later renamed Skylab. Two more resigned in the early 1970s before making a spaceflight. While waiting 15 to 18 years for their first space mission, the remaining seven Group 6 astronauts distinguished themselves supporting the Apollo, Skylab, and space shuttle programs. In total, they completed 15 flights aboard the space shuttle. (...)
https://www.nasa.gov/history/55-years-ago-nasa-selects-11-scientist-astronauts/https://uhcl-ir.tdl.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/69464256-312a-46df-bcc5-024ac89f6cab/content
Wątek: RAR Parker - 14.12.1936 (Przeczytany 542 razy)