Ed Campion
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                                                        
July 21, 1992
(Phone:  202/453-1134)

Barbara Schwartz
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone:  713/483-5111)


RELEASE:  92-120

ASTRONAUT HILMERS LEAVES NASA TO STUDY MEDICINE


     Astronaut David C. Hilmers (Col., USMC) is leaving NASA in 
the fall and retiring from the U.S. Marine Corps November 1 to 
pursue a medical degree.  Hilmers will attend the Baylor College 
of Medicine in Houston.

     Hilmers has flown on four Space Shuttle missions, logging 
more than 493 hours in space.  In September 1988, he served as a 
mission specialist on STS-26, the first flight to be flown after 
the Challenger accident, which deployed a Tracking and Data Relay 
Satellite.

     More recently, Hilmers was a crew member on the STS-42 
International Microgravity Laboratory-1 mission in January 1992, 
working on experiments in a broad spectrum of scientific 
disciplines provided by investigators from 11 countries.  Two of 
the missions, STS-51J in October 1985 and STS-36 in February 1990, 
were Department of Defense flights.

     Selected as an astronaut in 1980, Hilmers has served in a 
number of technical assignments, including work on upper stage 
vehicles, Shuttle software verification, astronaut office training 
coordinator, spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM), Space Station 
Freedom issues and Head of the Mission Development Branch within 
the Astronaut Office.

     "As I leave NASA, I reflect on 12 years filled with grand 
experiences, great joy and occasional sorrow.  Above all else, I 
will miss my co-workers in the space program who stood by me 
throughout, and whose efforts were responsible for anything I 
might have achieved.  At this time, I feel that I have been 
assigned to a new mission in the field of medicine, and my hope is 
that my service to others would someday approach the support I 
have enjoyed here," Hilmers said.


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     "Dave is a brilliant and totally unselfish person.  I'm sure 
he will be successful in his new career as a doctor.  His 
aspiration to new goals typifies the intrinsic striving to explore 
new horizons and to accept new challenges that made him an 
outstanding astronaut and an asset to the space program," Donald 
R. Puddy, Director of Flight Crew Operations, said.

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