July 9, 1997

Debbie Rahn
Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone: 202/358-1639)

Eileen Hawley
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(Phone: 281/483-5111)

Release: 97-151

Jeff Hoffman Retires From Astronaut Corps

Veteran astronaut Jeffrey A. Hoffman (Ph.D.) is leaving the Astronaut Corps after five Space Shuttle flights to become NASA's European representative in Paris, France.

"Jeff's contributions over the past 19 years have been extremely valuable to the astronaut corps, and we will certainly miss him," said David C. Leestma, director of flight crew operations at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX. "We are pleased that he will continue to provide his expertise to the Agency in his new role."

Hoffman was selected as an astronaut in 1978. On STS-51D in April 1985, he made the first contingency spacewalk of the Space Shuttle era, attaching a 'flyswatter' device to the Shuttle's robot arm in an attempted rescue of the Leasat satellite. He then flew on STS-35, a dedicated astronomy mission in December 1992 onboard Columbia. He was the payload commander for STS-46, the first flight of the Tethered Satellite System in July 1992, and flew again on STS-75 in March 1996 for the Tethered Satellite reflight. Hoffman also was one of four spacewalking astronauts for the first Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission in 1993 during the STS-61 mission. In his five space flights, Hoffman has logged more than 1,200 hours in space and traveled more than 21.5 million miles.

In his new position, Hoffman will be responsible for monitoring the implementation of NASA policies and relationships with the European space and aeronautical communities, as well as governmental, industrial and academic institutions.

For complete biographical information on Hoffman, or any astronaut, see the NASA Internet biography home page at URL: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/

text-only version of this release