Astronaut Gordon Fullerton (1936-2013)

(Before It's News)

collectSPACE.com

An Air Force test pilot, NASA astronaut and research test pilot, C. Gordon Fullerton died Wednesday (Aug. 21) at age 76. Fullerton was one of the first pilots to test the space shuttle in flight, both as part of the precursor approach and landing tests and during its initial missions. His two spaceflights, STS-3 in 1982 and STS-51F in 1985, stand alone in the program’s history for including the only White Sands, NM landing and the only abort-to-orbit, respectively. Fullerton logged nearly 400 hours in space and more than 16,000 hours flying 135 different types of Air Force and NASA aircraft.

collectSPACE features daily entries about space exploration history, plus news and information about space artifact exhibits.\”

• Flicker… A Bright New Method of Measuring Stellar Surface Gravity
• Curiosity Conducts Science on the Go and Zooms to Stunning Mount Sharp
• Astronaut Luca Parmitano Describes Experience Of Drowning In Space
• Major Role Played By NASA Goddard In NASA Lunar Mission
• NASA Releases ‘Wave At Saturn’ Collage From Cassini Photo Shoot
• Zombie-Like Vortex Gives Final Push To Birth New Star
• Future Space Missions Could Rely On Pulsars For Navigation
• Cassini Releases Image Of Earth Waving At Saturn
• NASA Spacecraft Reactivated to Hunt for Asteroids
• ISON is Between the Orbits of Mars and Jupiter and it is Emerging from the Suns Glare