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astronautix.com Haise


Fred Wallace Haise Jr Status: Inactive. Trained as: Astronaut. Profession: Pilot. Sex: Male. Marital Status: Married. Children: Four. Birth Date: 14 November 1933. Birth City: Biloxi. Birth State: Mississippi. Birth Country: USA. Nationality: American. Group: 1966 NASA Group. Date Selected: 04 April 1966. Departed: 1979. Number of Flights: 1. Total Time: 5.95 days.

NAME: Fred W. Haise Jr.

BIRTHPLACE AND DATE: Haise was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, on November 14, 1933.

EDUCATION: Bachelor of Science degree with honours in aeronautical engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 1959. Honorary Doctorate of Science from Western Michigan University in 1970.

EXPERIENCE: Haise began a varied military career as a naval aviation cadet at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. He had assignments with the Navy Advanced Training Command at Kingsville, Texas, as a Marine Corps fighter pilot at Cherry Point, North Carolina, and as a fighter interceptor pilot in the Oklahoma National Guard. He was the Aerospace Research Pilot School's outstanding graduate of Class 64A and served with the Air Force in 1961 and 1962 as a tactical fighter pilot. NASA then acquired him as a research pilot at its Flight Research Center at Edwards, California, and at its Lewis Research Center in Cleveland.

Haise was selected by NASA as an astronaut in April 1966. He was backup Lunar Module pilot for the Apollo 8 and Apollo 11 missions. He was then assigned to go to the moon on Apollo 13 with Commander Jim Lovell and Command Module pilot Jack Swigert. Lovell and Haise were to have explored the moon's Fra Mauro highlands in April 1970, but en route, an oxygen tank in the Service Module exploded, resulting in loss of all Command Module oxygen and electric power. The crew used their still-attached Lunar Module as a lifeboat. Together with ground controllers, they made several manual manoeuvres using the Lunar Module engine and made it safely back to Earth after a harrowing trip.

Between 1973 and 1976, Haise was technical assistant to the manager of the Space Shuttle Orbiter Project. He was Commander of the Space Shuttle Enterprise during the approach and landing test flights, flown from the back of a Boeing 747, in 1977.

Haise retired from NASA in June 1979 and held several managerial positions with Grumman Aerospace Corporation before retiring in 1996.


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