William Shepherd

William McMichael Shepherd (born July 26, 1949), (Capt, USN, Ret.), is an American former Navy SEAL, aerospace, ocean, and mechanical engineer, and NASA astronaut, who served as commander of Expedition 1, the first crew on the International Space Station. He is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Education and training Shepherd was born on July 26, 1949, to George R. Shepherd and Barbara Shepherd in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, but he considers Babylon, New York, his hometown. He graduated from Arcadia High School in Phoenix, Arizona in 1967, and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in 1971. He completed Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training in 1972, then joined the United States Naval Special Warfare Command and qualified as a Navy SEAL. He served with the Navy's Underwater Demolition Team ELEVEN, SEAL Teams ONE and TWO, and Special Boat Unit TWENTY. He obtained an Engineer's degree in Ocean Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering, both in 1978, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

After Shepherd was selected for NASA Astronaut Group 10 in 1984, rumors spread that he had answered a standard interview question about what he did best by saying, "kill people with knives" but he later refused to confirm or deny the account, commenting "it's too good a story". He was the first military non-aviator in astronaut training, following his unsuccessful application for NASA Astronaut Group 9 in 1980. In 1986, Shepherd's Navy SEAL training proved unexpectedly useful to NASA as he helped to direct the underwater salvage operations of the Space Shuttle Challenger after its destruction. Shepherd then served as a mission specialist on three Space Shuttle flights: mission STS-27 in 1988, but a long series of political, financial, and technical problems caused significant delays. Although sixteen nations would participate in the ISS program, Russia, along with the United States would bear the majority of the station's costs.

STS-41: Discovery (October 6–10, 1990) during 66 orbits of the Earth, the crew aboard the Orbiter successfully deployed the Ulysses, starting it on a four-year journey (via Jupiter) to investigate the polar regions of the Sun.

STS-52: Columbia (October 22 to November 1, 1992) was the 10-day mission deployed the Laser Geodynamic Satellite (LAGEOS), and conducted U.S. microgravity payload experiments.

Expedition 1: From October 31, 2000, to March 21, 2001, he and Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergey Krikalev launched from Baikonur on Soyuz TM 31 and served as Expedition 1, the first crew on board ISS. The crew returned to Earth on the Space Shuttle Discovery, STS 102.

Organizations American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)

Awards and honors

Congressional Space Medal of Honor 2009 inductee into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. Honorary Naval Aviator

Fédération Aéronautique Internationale V. M. Komarov Diploma Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) Yuri Gagarin Gold Medal Spirit of St Louis Medal NDIA Lt. Col. George M. Chinn Award Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" International Space Station Program, which Capt. Shepherd led both on the ground, and in space, was awarded the 2009 Collier Trophy.