William SHEPHERD
ISS-1 Commander, Soyuz-TM flight-engineer-2
NASA astronaut (U.S. Navy captain)
L.B.Johnson Spacecraft Center, USA
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: July 26, 1949, Oak
Ridge, Tennessee, however he sees Babylon, New-York, as
his homeland. Father: George R. Shepherd died. Mother: Mrs.
Barbara Shepherd born in 1921, lives in Betesda, Maryland.
EDUCATION: He finished Arkadia high school
in Scotsdale, Arizona, in 1967, got the degree of bachelor
in aerospace machine-building in the U.S. Navy Academy in
1971, diploma of an engineer in oceanic engineering and
the degree of master in mechanics in the Massachusetts Technology
Institute.
FAMILY STATUS: Married.
Wife: Beth Stringham.
AWARDS AND RANKS: awarded with NASA Stav
Torn Prize in aviation.
HOBBIES: sailing, swimming, work in garage.
WORK EXPERIENCE: After graduation from the
U.S. Navy Academy in 1972 he served in the BLEVEN fighting
swimmers detachment, in SEAL ONE and SEAL TWO detachments,
in TWENTY special operations department.
In May 1984 he was selected as a candidate of NASA astronauts.
As a mission specialist he participated in three space flights
and has 440 flying time.
From November 1993 to January 1996 he had been working as
a deputy manager of the International space station program.
Nowadays he is passing training in Russia and will be the
NASA first astronaut aboard ISS.
He was a crew member of the Atlantis Shuttle, STS-27, during
his first flight (on December 2-6, 1988). The flight lasted
for 105 hours, a Defence Department payload was accommodated
on board.
During STS-41 flight (October 6-10. 1990) the Discovery
Shuttle crew, following 66 orbits around the Earth, deployed
successfully the Ullyss spacecraft, after which the Ullyss
four-year began (with Jupiter flyby) aimed at investigation
of the Sun's polar areas.
The third flight, STS-52 (October 22 - November 1, 1992),Shepherd
performed aboard the Columbia Shuttle. During the 10-day
flight a laser geodynamic satellite (LAGEOS) was deployed
and experiments in microgravity with an international payload
were implemented.
Since 1966 he has been training for space flight as the
ISS-1 prime crew commander and flight-engineer-2 of the
Soyuz-TM TV.
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