NASA Official Biography

Francis Andrew Gaffney, M.D. was born in Carlsbad, New Mexico.

Gaffney graduated from Carlsbad High School in 1964, received a bachelor of arts from the University of California-Berkley in 1968, received a doctor of medicine degree from the University of New Mexico in 1972 and received a fellowship in cardiology from the University of Texas in 1975.

He completed a 3-year medical internship and residency at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio, in 1975, and went on to receive a fellowship in cardiology at the University of Texas' Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, becoming a faculty associate and an assistant professor of medicine there in 1979. From 1979-1987, he served as assistant director of echocardiography at Parkland Memorial Hospital, Dallas.

Gaffney served as a visiting senior scientist with NASA from 1987-1989. He was a co-investigator on an experiment aboard STS-40 that studied human cardiovascular adaptation to space flight, and served as Payload Specialist 1 (PS1).

• STS-71-E - - 1987 March - Assignment: Proposed Prime Crew.

  Planned SLS-1 shuttle mission. Cancelled after Challenger disaster.

• STS-40 - - 1991 Jun 5 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 9.09 days. Flight details: STS-40.

  Carried Spacelab life sciences module. Payloads: Spacelab Life Sciences (SLS)-1 with long module, getaway special bridge assembly with 12 getaway specials, Physiological Monitoring System (PMS), Urine Monitoring System (UMS), Animal Enclosure Modules (AEM), Middeck Zero-gravity Dynamics Experiment (MODE), 7 Orbiter Experiments Program experiments.