ASTRONAUT STORY MUSGRAVE RETIRES FROM NASA



September 2, 1997



Jennifer McCarter
Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone: 202/358-1639)



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

<h4>Release: 97-188</h4> <h3>Astronaut Story Musgrave Retires From 
NASA</h3> 

Veteran astronaut F. Story Musgrave retired from NASA today to pursue 
private interests in the communications industry.



Musgrave&rsquo;s NASA career spanned the Apollo era to the Space 
Shuttle program into initial development of spacewalk strategies for 
the International Space Station.



"Throughout the Shuttle program, from its earliest stages to the 
present, Story has been instrumental in developing the techniques 
crew members use to perform spacewalks," said David C. Leestma, 
director of Flight Crew Operations. "His knowledge, expertise and 
friendship will be sorely missed."



Musgrave, 62, joined NASA in 1967 and is a veteran of six Space 
Shuttle flights, having spent more than 1,281 hours in space. He 
first flew on STS-6 in 1983, the maiden voyage of Challenger. During 
that flight Musgrave and fellow astronaut Don Peterson conducted the 
first spacewalk of the Shuttle era. His other Shuttle flights include 
STS-51F aboard Challenger in 1985, STS-33 on board Discovery in 1989, 
STS-44 on Atlantis in 1991, and STS-61, the first Hubble Space 
Telescope Servicing mission aboard Endeavour in 1991, and finally 
STS-80 on Columbia in 1996. With STS-80, Musgrave became the oldest 
person ever to fly in space.



For complete biographical information on Musgrave and other 
astronauts, see the NASA Internet astronaut biography home page at 
address: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/.

	
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