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NAME: John McCreary Fabian
BIRTHPLACE AND DATE: Fabian was born on January 28, 1939 in Goosecreek, Texas.
EDUCATION: Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Washington State University in 1962. Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the United States Air Force Institute of Technology in 1964. Doctorate in astronautics and aeronautics from the University of Washington in 1974.
EXPERIENCE: An Air Force officer from 1962, Fabian was a fighter pilot in the Vietnam War. He logged over 4,000 hours of flight time. Fabian was selected in 1978 as a NASA astronaut in the first space shuttle astronaut group. He completed astronaut training in 1979,. Qualified as a mission specialist, Fabian worked on satellite deployment and retrieval techniques and equipment, including development of the Shuttle's Remote Manipulator System robot arm.
Fabian's first space mission was on the space shuttle Challenger, June 18 to 24, 1983. During this flight he helped deploy two satellites from Canada and Indonesia. During his second mission, aboard the shuttle Discovery, June 17 to 24, 1985, the crew deployed three communications satellites, and deployed and retrieved the SPARTAN-1 X-ray astronomy satellite
In 1986 Fabian left NASA to become Director of Space at U.S. Air Force Headquarters. He retired from the Air Force in 1987 to become President and Chief Executive Officer at ANSER (Analytic Services, Inc.), a nonprofit aerospace professional services organization in Arlington, Virginia.
Manned five crew. Deployed Anik C2, Palapa B1; deployed and retrieved SPAS platform. Payloads: Office of Space and Terrestrial Applications (OSTA)-2 experiments, deployment of PALAPA-B1 communications satellite for Indonesia with Payload Assist Module (PAM)-D and Telesat-F communications satellite for Canada with PAM-D, German Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS)-01, seven getaway specials (GAS), Monodisperse Latex Reactor (MLR), Continuous Flow Electrophoresis System (CFES).
Planned shuttle mission. Cancelled due to payload delays.
Deployed and retrieved Spartan 1; launched Morelos 1, Arabsat 1B, Telstar 3D.Payloads: Shuttle Pointed Autono-mous Research Tool for Astronomy (SPARTAN)-1; Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (ADSF); High Precision Tracking Experiment (HPTE); Orbiter Experiments (OEX); French Echocardiograph Experiment (FEE) and French Pocket Experiment (FPE).