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.