Spaceflight: The Marine Astronauts Part 2—Building A Permanent Presence: 1970–2019

Gerald Carr flew Marine Corps fighters for five years prior to being selected to become a NASA astronaut in April 1966. He helped develop and test NASA’s lunar rover vehicle used by the Apollo crews.

Carr commanded Skylab 4 during an 84-day mission in 1973–1974, where he completed three spacewalks and tested the Automatically Stabilized Maneuvering Unit (ASMU), a backpack that allowed an astronaut to maneuver in space. The ASMU was a predecessor to NASA’s Manned Maneuvering Unit, which allowed for untethered flight outside a spacecraft on later space shuttle missions.

Jack Lousma joined the Marine Corps in 1959, serving with Marine Attack Squadron 224 and Marine Composite Reconnaissance Squadron 2. Lousma was one of 19 astronauts selected in 1966. He piloted the 1973 Skylab 3 mission, which travelled more than 24.4 million miles and completed 333 medical experiments. 

Lousma made two spacewalks, spending a total of more than 11 hours in space. In 1982, Lousma was the commander of the Space Shuttle Columbia on STS-3, the third space shuttle orbital test flight.

As a mission specialist, Hilmers made four trips to space between 1985 and 1992, including classified Department of Defense space shuttle missions. In 1988, he was a member of the Space Shuttle Discovery’s crew during STS-26, the first space shuttle mission following the loss of Challenger in 1986.

David Hilmers received his commission in 1972, served as a bombardier-navigator with Marine All-Weather Attack Squadron 121, and in 1975 served as an air liaison officer with the 1st Battalion, 2d Marines. NASA selected him as an astronaut in August 1981.

During his two Vietnam combat tours, Robert Springer flew over 550 combat missions in fighter/attack aircraft, observation airplanes, and helicopters. He received both the Navy Distinguished Flying Cross and the Bronze Star.

Springer became a test pilot in 1975 and was serving as the aide-de-camp to the commanding general, Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic, when NASA selected him as an astronaut candidate in 1980. After completing two years of training and becoming an astronaut, Springer completed space shuttle missions aboard Discovery in March 1989 and Atlantis in November 1990.

Bryan O’Connor graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1968 and piloted attack aircraft in the Marine Corps. He served as a test pilot from 1975 to 1979 and joined NASA in 1980. O’Connor commanded Columbia on STS-40 in 1991, the first shuttle mission solely dedicated to life science research.

Astronauts used the Spacelab Life Sciences-1 module, a self-contained research laboratory carried in Columbia’s cargo bay, to conduct experiments on themselves, rodents, and jellyfish. Between 2002 and 2011, O’Connor was responsible for the safety of all NASA programs, including the ISS.

Franklin “Story” Musgrave joined the Marine Corps in 1953, working as an aviation electrician, instrument technician, and aircraft crew chief. He served with NASA from 1967 to 1997, participating in three Skylab missions and in the development of equipment used in extravehicular activities.

Musgrave was a crew member on six space shuttle missions between 1983 and 1996, and was the payload commander on STS-61, which successfully repaired the Hubble Space Telescope.

Kenneth D. Cameron served in Vietnam as a 5th Marines platoon commander and with the security detachment at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. After flight school and service with Marine Attack Squadron 223, Cameron entered the NASA astronaut program in 1984.

He became NASA’s first Director of Operations at the cosmonaut training center in Star City, Russia. In 1995, Cameron commanded Atlantis on STS-74, which installed a docking module onto the Russian Space Station Mir. Following the loss of Columbia in 2003, NASA formed the Engineering and Safety Center and selected Cameron as its first Principal Engineer.

Charles F. Bolden flew over 100 missions over southeast Asia before becoming an astronaut candidate in 1980. He flew four space shuttle missions between 1986 and 1994, including piloting STS-31, which deployed the Hubble Space Telescope, and commanding STS-60, the first joint U.S.-Russian space shuttle mission.

In 1994, Bolden returned to the Marines and was promoted to major general in 1998. Bolden was nominated to become the NASA Administrator in 2009 and led the agency until 2017. He fostered NASA’s support of private commercial low-Earth orbit space programs, as well as the development of NASA’s own Orion spacecraft.

Medical examinations following the mission showed that Glenn’s body responded to weightlessness no differently than much younger astronauts and NASA gained confidence in selecting older candidates for future missions.

On 29 October 1998, John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, returned to space as a payload specialist aboard the Discovery. NASA wanted to investigate the effects of weightlessness on older subjects and Senator Glenn, at age 77, volunteered to become the oldest person to orbit the Earth.

NASA selected Noriega for astronaut training in 1994, making him the first Peruvian-born astronaut. He flew on  Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1997 and aboard the Endeavor in 2000, during which he spent over 19 hours outside the ISS installing solar arrays and structural components.

Commissioned in 1981, Carlos Noriega became a CH-46 Sea Knight transport helicopter pilot. He attended the Naval Postgraduate School and was assigned to the U.S. Space Command in 1990, where he served as a Space Surveillance Center Commander.

George Zamka graduated from the Naval Academy in 1984 and flew 66 combat missions in F/A-18D Hornets during Operation Desert Storm. In 1994, he enrolled in the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, and NASA selected him as an astronaut candidate in 1998.

Zamka piloted Discovery on STS-120 in 2007, delivering and installing the ISS’s Harmony node, an internal connecting port and passageway to international science labs and cargo spacecraft. He commanded Endeavor on STS-130 in December 2008, during which  astronauts added the Tranquility node to the ISS.

Randolph “Komrade” Bresnik entered the USMC in 1989 and flew combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom prior to joining NASA in 2004. His first space mission was STS-129 in 2009 aboard Atlantis. Bresnik then completed a three-year tour as NASA’s lead astronaut working in partnership with SpaceX on its Dragon commercial spacecraft.

In July 2017, Bresnik joined ISS Expeditions 52/53. During this five-month mission, he served as the Flight Engineer of Expedition 52, and Commander of the ISS for Expedition 53. Bresnik has completed five spacewalks totaling 32 hours in space.