NASA and the space medicine community lost a true pioneer on September 5, 2016 with the passing of Duane Edgar Graveline, M.D., M.P.H., at the age of 85.
After medical school, Dr. Graveline completed an aerospace medicine residency at the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine in San Antonio, Texas, in 1960. He began his career with NASA after service as an Air Force flight surgeon, graduate studies at Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, as well as work as a researcher at the Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory where he studied the effects of weightlessness on the human body. Dr. Graveline’s research interest set the stage for the development and use of the Lower Body Negative Pressure (LBNP) device used on Mir and the International Space Station. Dr. Graveline was the author of 15 publications on the microgravity environment which included original work on the deconditioning of astronauts after prolonged stays in space.
Dr. Graveline served on the flight control team for both the Mercury and Gemini programs starting in July 1962. During this time he was assigned as a medical monitor for every mission up until his own selection as an astronaut. In 1965 Dr. Graveline was selected from a pool of over 1,400 applicants as one of six scientist astronauts in the fourth astronaut selection group. That summer Dr. Graveline began supersonic jet training at Williams Air Force Base in Arizona.
Several months later Dr. Graveline resigned from NASA and the astronaut program for personal reasons. He returned to his home state of Vermont and entered private medical practice. At the dawn of the Space Shuttle era, Dr. Graveline served as the Director of Medical Operations at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for the first four Space Shuttle launches. From 2003 to 2005, he served as space medicine consultant to Kennedy Space Center in the area of his research in cosmic radiation at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Dr. Graveline is among only a handful of selected astronauts who never flew in space. He is also the only astronaut to hail from Vermont. Dr. Graveline’s passion for space and space medicine leave a legacy for NASA and the space medicine community.
Robert B. Collom, NASA History Division Intern, Fall 2016