NASA

This astronaut crossed the Kármán Line (100 km), the internationally accepted boundary of space.

Crossed Kármán Line

This astronaut was the first Sitting congressman in space.

First Sitting Congressman in Space

Senator Jake Garn, born on October 12, 1932, in Richfield, Utah, is a former insurance executive, U.S. Navy and Utah Air National Guard pilot, and retired Colonel with over 10,000 flight hours. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business and finance from the University of Utah and served as Mayor of Salt Lake City before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1974, where he later won re-election in 1980 with a record-setting 74% of the vote. In the Senate, he chaired the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee and held key roles on the Appropriations Committee. Garn made history as the first member of Congress to fly in space, serving as a payload specialist on NASA’s STS-51D mission aboard the Space Shuttle 

 in 1985, during which he orbited Earth 108 times and logged over 167 hours in space. He is married with seven children and one grandchild. Courtesy of NASA.

STS-51-D (Discovery)

This mission deployed a Canadian communications satellite and tried to deploy a U.S. satellite, but an issue forced an unscheduled spacewalk to try to manually start the satellite's post-deployment sequence. The crew eventually had to bring the satellite back to Earth for repair. During landing Discovery blew a tire, leading NASA to suspend all Florida Space Shuttle landings until nose gear steering and improved braking could be added.

The first reusable launch and landing spacecraft, the Space Shuttle began a new chapter of human space exploration. It launched like a rocket but landed on a runway like a plane. Shuttle crews deployed dozens of commercial satellites and two interplanetary probes to Venus and Jupiter. The Shuttle served as a mini space station and hosted hundreds of biomedical, psychological, physiological, materials science, and physics experiments that have directly benefited life on Earth. The five flight-worthy Shuttles -- Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour -- flew 135 missions over 30 years. The Shuttles helped construct the Russian Mir space station and brought nearly 80% of the International Space Station to orbit. Shuttles also deployed and serviced the Hubble Space Telescope.

Space Shuttle

Jake Garn

United States of America

STS-6 (Challenger)

The first flight of the Shuttle Challenger deployed the first of NASA's TDRS orbital communications satellites.

STS-51-J (Atlantis)

The maiden flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis. This was a classified Department of Defense mission.

Karol J. Bobko

STS-41-D (Discovery)

The maiden voyage of the Space Shuttle Discovery. A June 26th launch attempt ended at T-6.4 seconds after two of the three Shuttle main engines had started to ignite. The pad abort triggered a hydrogen fire under Discovery, damaging the Space Shuttle. The abort led to major improvements in Shuttle abort safety guidelines and procedures and forced a two month delay to the flight, during which NASA cancelled STS-41-F and transferred its payload to this mission. After launch, the crew deployed three communications satellites for the U.S. (2) and Canada (1) and tested solar array technology. The flight marked the first time a company commercially sponsored an employee to fly on the Space Shuttle to perform one of its experiments.

STS-61-B (Atlantis)

Mexico

This mission deployed three satellites for Australia, Mexico, and the U.S., and took the first Mexican citizen to space. Two spacewalks proved assembling large, pre-formed structures in space was possible, though their shape was crucial -- a key to the eventual construction of the International Space Station. At launch, this became the fastest turnaround between flights of any rocket or spacecraft to date; Atlantis launched for a second time just 54 days after her first mission.

Charles D. Walker

STS-34 (Atlantis)

Atlantis' five-person crew deployed the Galileo spacecraft toward Jupiter and performed eight scientific experiments.

Donald E. Williams

This astronaut has spent over a month in space.

Space Resident

STS-58 (Columbia)

During this 14-day flight, Columbia's crew performed numerous experiments to study how the human body adapts to microgravity.

STS-40 (Columbia)

This mission was the fifth flight of Spacelab and the first one dedicated specifically to biological research. It marked the first time three women flew together on a single mission.

Margaret R. Seddon

S. David Griggs

STS-61 (Endeavour)

The mission to rescue Hubble. On this flight, Endeavour's seven-person crew saved Hubble by outfitting it with "glasses" to correct the telescope's blurry vision. The crew also significantly upgraded Hubble's instruments and solar arrays. The mission was a success has allowed Hubble to continue its career as a space telescope to this day.

STS-35 (Columbia)

This astronomical mission flew a suite of telescopes as part of the Spacelab observatory mission ASTRO-1.

STS-46 (Atlantis)

This mission deployed ESA's European Retrievable Carrier satellite, was the first to test the joint NASA/Italian Space Agency Tethered Satellite System, and marked the 150th human spaceflight to reach orbit.

STS-75 (Columbia)

This joint NASA-ESA mission saw the crew continue testing the Italian Tethered Satellite System and perform a variety of materials science and physics experiments.

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