Curbeam

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Curbeam

Robert Lee Curbeam Jr Status: Active. Trained as: Astronaut. Profession: Mission Specialist. Sex: Male. Marital Status: Married. Children: Two. Birth Date: 05 March 1962. Birth City: Baltimore. Birth State: Maryland. Birth Country: USA. Nationality: American. Group: 1995 NASA Group. Date Selected: 09 December 1994. Number of Flights: 2. Total Time: 24.74 days. Number of EVAs: 3. Total EVA Time: 19.92 hours.

NASA Official Biography

NAME: Robert L. Curbeam, Jr., (Lieutenant Commander, USN): NASA Astronaut
PERSONAL DATA:: Born March 5, 1962, in Baltimore, Maryland. Married to the former Julie Dawn Lein; two children. He enjoys weightlifting, biking, and family activities.
EDUCATION:: Graduated from Woodlawn High School, Baltimore County, Maryland, 1980. Bachelor of science degree in aerospace engineering from the United States Naval Academy, 1984. Master of science degree in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School, 1990. Degree of aeronautical & astronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School, 1991.
ORGANIZATIONS:: Member of the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association and the Association of Old Crows.
SPECIAL HONORS:: Fighter Wing One Radar Intercept Officer of the Year for 1989, U.S. Naval Test Pilot School Best Developmental Thesis (DT-II) Award, two Navy Commendation Medals, the Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Navy Battle Efficiency Award, and the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon.
EXPERIENCE:: Upon graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy, Curbeam commenced Naval Flight Officer training in 1984. In 1986 he reported to Fighter Squadron 11 and made overseas deployments to the Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas, and the Arctic and Indian Oceans onboard the USS Forrestal (CV-59). Upon completion of Test Pilot School in December 1991, he reported to the Strike Aircraft Test Directorate where he was the project officer for the F-14A/B Air-to-Ground Weapons Separation Program. In August 1994, he returned to the U.S. Naval Academy as an instructor in the Weapons and Systems Engineering Department.
NASA EXPERIENCE:: Selected by NASA in December 1994, Curbeam reported to the Johnson Space Center in March 1995. He completed a year of training and evaluation and was assigned to the Computer Support Branch of the Astronaut Office.
CURRENT ASSIGNMENT:: Curbeam will serve as a mission specialist on the crew of STS-85 during Discovery's 11-day mission to study changes in the Earth's atmosphere. STS-85 is targeted for a July 1997 launch.

JANUARY 1997

Flight Log

STS-85 - - 1997 Aug 7 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 11.85 days. Flight details: STS-85.
Deployed and retrieved the CRISTA-SPAS-2 (the Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere-Shuttle Pallet Satellite-2) designed to study Earth's middle atmosphere. The CRISTA-SPAS-2 was making its second flight on the Space Shuttle and represented the fourth mission in a cooperative venture between the German Space Agency (DARA) and NASA.
CRISTA-SPAS was deployed by the RMS arm at 22:27 GMT on August 7 and was recaptured by Discovery's RMS arm at 15:14 GMT on August 16. Because of unfavorable weather conditions at the primary shuttle landing site at the Kennedy Space Center, Discovery was waved off for its scheduled August 18 landing. STS-85 landed the next day, at Kennedy Space Center at 11:08 GMT.
STS-98 - - 2001 Feb 7 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 12.89 days. Flight details: STS-98.
International Space Station assembly mission; delivered the Destiny and PMA-2 modules. The shuttle orbiter was placed in an initial 74 x 323 km x 51.6 deg orbit. At 2357 GMT the OMS engines fired for the OMS-2 burn which raised Atlantis' orbit to 204 x 322 km x 51.6 deg. Atlantis docked with the Station at 1651 GMT on February 9 at the PMA-3 port on Unity's nadir. At 1500 GMT on Feb 10 Marsha Ivins used the RMS arm to unberth the PMA-2 docking port from Unity. Tom Jones and Bob Curbeam then conducted three spacewalks on Februay 10 to 14 to attach the Destiny and PMA-2 modules to the station. Atlantis undocked from Alpha at 1406 GMT on February 16. Atlantis landed at Edwards AFB on February 20; plans to land on February 18 and 19 were called off due to bad weather at Kennedy Space Center. The deorbit burn was at 1927 GMT and lowered the orbit from 370 x 386 km to about 50 x 380 km. The nominal entry interface at 122 km came at 2002 GMT and touchdown on runway 22 was at 20:33 GMT. On March 1 Atlantis was flown on the back of NASA's SCA 911 carrier aircraft to Altus AFB, Oklahoma, en route to Kennedy.
EVA STS-98-1 - - 2001 Feb 10 - Assignment: EVA Crew. EVA Duration: 7.67 hours.
Tom Jones and Bob Curbeam began the first STS-98 spacewalk from the ODS airlock on Atlantis, supervising the ISS/Destiny assembly operations. The airlock was depressurized at 1544 GMT. PMA-2 was berthed on Z1 at 1650 GMT; Destiny was unberthed from the payload bay at 1735 GMT and docked to Unity at 1900 GMT. At 1935 GMT Curbeam was connecting ammonia coolant lines when a leaking connector sprayed ammonia into space, contaminating his suit. He was ordered to stay in sunlight to bake off the ammonia. At around 2311 GMT the spacewalkers returned to the airlock, closing the hatch at 2318 GMT. A new depressurization for decontamination was begun at 2342 GMT, with the airlock fully depressurized at 2350 GMT. The hatch was then opened and closed quickly at 2351-2352 GMT, to flush the airlock of any ammonia residue. This last event was not counted as an EVA by NASA.
EVA STS-98-2 - - 2001 Feb 12 - Assignment: EVA Crew. EVA Duration: 6.83 hours.
STS-98 EVA-2 began at 1555 GMT on February 12 with depressurization of the airlock. The astronauts went to battery power at 1559 GMT. The PMA-2 docking port was attached to Destiny at 1728 GMT. The Power Data Grapple Fixture (PDGF) was removed from its location on an adaptive payload carrier on the port side of the payload bay (probably bay 5P) and installed on Destiny. The PDGF will be used by the Station's robot arm, and is an improved grapple fixture with electrical power and data ports. The hatch was closed at 2240 GMT and the airlock was repressurized at 2249 GMT
EVA STS-98-3 - - 2001 Feb 14 - Assignment: EVA Crew. EVA Duration: 5.42 hours.
On the third STS-98 EVA the airlock was depressurized at 1443 GMT, with hatch open at around 1445 and battery power at 1448. The spare SASA S-band antenna was unberthed from an adapter beam in the payload bay (around bay 4P?) and installed on Z1. The +X (starboard) TCS radiator on P6, launched on the previous mission, was deployed at 1649 GMT. The astronauts completed the spacewalk with repressurization of the airlock at 2013 GMT

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Last update 3 May 2001.
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