Richard O. Covey

Richard Oswalt Covey (born August 1, 1946) is a retired United States Air Force officer, former NASA astronaut, and a member of the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame.

Early life Born on August 1, 1946, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Covey considers Fort Walton Beach, Florida, to be his hometown. He graduated from Choctawhatchee High School in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, in 1964; he received a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering science with a major in astronautical engineering from the United States Air Force Academy in 1968, and a Master of Science degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Purdue University in 1969.

Military career As a member of the U.S. Air Force, Covey was an operational fighter pilot from 1970 to 1974, flying the F-100 Super Sabre, A-37 Dragonfly and A-7 Corsair II. He flew 339 combat missions during two tours in Southeast Asia. At Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, between 1975 and 1978, he was an F-4 Phantom II and A-7D weapons system test pilot and joint test force director for electronic warfare testing of the F-15 Eagle.

He has flown over 5,700 hours in more than 30 different types of aircraft.

NASA career

Selection, training, and administration Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in January 1978, Covey became an astronaut in August 1979. A veteran of four space flights, STS-51-I in 1985, STS-26 in 1988, STS-38 in 1990, and STS-61 in 1993, Covey has logged over 646 hours in space. He was the last member of his astronaut class—the 1978 NASA Group 8—to make his first spaceflight.

Prior to the first flight of the Space Shuttle, he provided astronaut support in Orbiter engineering development and testing. He was a T-38 chase pilot for the second and third Shuttle flights and support crewman for the first operational Shuttle flight, STS-5. Covey also served as Mission Control spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM) for Shuttle missions STS-5, 6, 61-B, 61-C, and 51-L (it was his voice that said the now infamous words, "Challenger, go at throttle up" shortly before the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster). During 1989, he was Chairman of NASA's Space Flight Safety Panel. He has held additional technical assignments within the NASA Astronaut Office, and has also served as Acting Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office, and Acting Deputy Director of Flight Crew Operations.

STS-51-I The crew of the STS-51-I mission. Covey is at the lower right.

On his first mission, Covey was on the five-man crew of STS-51-I, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on August 27, 1985. During this seven-day mission, crew members deployed three communications satellites: the Navy SYNCOM IV-4, the Australian AUSSAT, and American Satellite Corporation's ASC-1. The crew also performed the successful on-orbit rendezvous and repair of the ailing 15,000 pound (6.8 t) SYNCOM IV-3 satellite. This repair activity involved the first manual grapple and manual deployment of a satellite by a spacewalking crew member. Mission duration was 170 hours. The completed 112 orbits before landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on September 3, 1985.

STS-26 He next served as pilot on STS-26, the first flight to be flown after the loss of Challenger. The five-man crew launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on September 29, 1988, aboard the Discovery. Mission duration was 97 hours during which crew members successfully deployed the TDRS-C satellite and operated eleven secondary payloads which included two student experiments. Discovery completed 64 orbits of the Earth before landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on October 3, 1988.

STS-38 On STS-38 Covey was the spacecraft commander of a five-man crew that launched at night from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on November 15, 1990.