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NAME: Don (not "Donald") Leslie Lind (Ph.D.)
NASA Astronaut (former)
PERSONAL DATA: Born in Midvale, Utah, on May 18, 1930. Married to the former Kathleen Maughan of Logan, Utah. They have seven grown children. Recreational interests include amateur theatricals, play writing, and painting; and he is a swimmer and skier.
EDUCATION: Attended Midvale Elementary School and is a graduate of Jordan High School, Sandy, Utah; received a bachelor of science degree with high honors in Physics from the University of Utah in 1953 and a doctor of Philosophy degree in High Energy Nuclear Physics in 1964 from the University of California, Berkeley; performed post-doctoral study at the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, in 1975-1976.
ORGANIZATIONS: Member of the American Geophysical Union, American Association for Advancement of Science, and Phi Kappa Phi.
SPECIAL HONORS: Awarded the NASA Exceptional Service Medal (1974).
EXPERIENCE: Before his selection as an astronaut, he
worked at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center as a space physicist. He had been
with Goddard since 1964 and was involved in experiments to determine the nature
and properties of low-energy particles within the Earth's magnetosphere and
interplanetary space. Previous to this, he worked at the Lawrence Radiation
Laboratory, Berkeley, California, doing research in pion-nucleon scattering, a
type of basic high energy particle interaction.
Lind holds the rank of Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He served four years
on active duty with the Navy at San Diego and later aboard the carrier USS
HANCOCK. He received his wings in 1957.
He has logged more than 4,500 hours flying time -- 4,000 hours in jet aircraft.
NASA EXPERIENCE: Dr. Lind was selected as an astronaut
in April 1966.
He served as backup science-pilot for Skylab 3 and Skylab 4 (the second and
third manned Skylab missions) and as a member of the rescue crew for the Skylab
missions.
Dr. Lind was a member of the astronaut office's operations missions development
group, responsible for developing payloads for the early Space Shuttle orbital
flight test (OFT) missions.
Dr. Lind was a mission specialist on STS-51B (April 29 to May 6, 1985) and has
logged over 168 hours in space.
Dr. Lind left NASA in 1986.
SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: STS-51B, the Spacelab-3 science mission, launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on April 29, 1985. This was the first operational Spacelab mission. The seven man crew conducted investigations in crystal growth, drop dynamics leading to containerless material processing, atmospheric trace gas spectroscopy, solar and planetary atmospheric simulation, cosmic rays, laboratory animals and human medical monitoring. Dr. Lind developed and conducted an experiment to make unique 3-dimensional video recordings of the earth's aurora. After completing 110 orbits of the earth, the Orbiter Challenger landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on May 6, 1985.
JANUARY 1987
Continued maintenance of the Skylab space station and extensive scientific and medical experiments. Installed twinpole solar shield on EVA; performed major inflight maintenance; doubled record for length of time in space. Completed 858 Earth orbits and 1,081 hours of solar and Earth experiments; three EVAs totalled 13 hours, 43 minutes.
The space vehicle, consisting of a modified Apollo command and service module payload on a Saturn IB launch vehicle, was inserted into a 231.3 by 154.7 km orbit. Rendezvous maneuvers were performed during the first five orbits as planned. During the rendezvous, the CSM reaction control system forward firing engine oxidizer valve leaked. The quad was isolated. Station-keeping with the Saturn Workshop began approximately 8 hours after liftoff, with docking being performed about 30 minutes later.
Influenced by the stranded Skylab crew portrayed in the book and movie 'Marooned', NASA provided a crew rescue capability for the only time in its history. A kit was developed to fit out an Apollo command module with a total of five crew couches. In the event a Skylab crew developed trouble with its Apollo CSM return craft, a rescue CSM would be prepared and launched to rendezvous with the station. It would dock with the spare second side docking port of the Skylab docking module. During Skylab 3, one of the thruster quads of the Apollo service module developed leaks. When the same problem developed with a second quad, the possibility existed that the spacecraft would not be maneuverable. Preparation work began to fit out a rescue CSM, and astronauts Vance Brand and Don Lind began preparations to rescue astronauts Bean, Garriott, and Lousma aboard the station. However the problem was localized, work arounds were developed, and the first space rescue mission was not necessary. The Skylab 3 crew returned successfully in their own Apollo CSM at the end of their 59 day mission.
Final Skylab mission; included observation and photography of Comet Kohoutek among numerous experiments. Completed 1,214 Earth orbits and four EVAs totalling 22 hours, 13 minutes. Increased manned space flight time record by 50%. Rebellion by crew against NASA Ground Control overtasking led to none of the crew ever flying again. Biological experiments included two Mummichog fish (Fundulus heteroclitus).
The space vehicle consisted of a modified Apollo CSM and a Saturn IB launch vehicle. All launch phase events were normal, and the CSM was inserted into a 150.1- by 227.08-km orbit. The rendezvous sequence was performed according to the anticipated timeline. Stationkeeping was initiated about seven and one-half hours after liftoff, and hard docking was achieved about 30 minutes later following two unsuccessful docking attempts. Planned duration of the mission was 56 days, with the option of extending it to a maximum of 84 days.
After completion of the three programmed Skylab flights, NASA considered using the remaining backup Saturn IB and Apollo CSM to fly a fourth manned mission to Skylab. It would have been a short 20 day mission - the CSM systems would not have been powered down. Main objective would be to conduct some new scientific experiments and boost Skylab into a higher orbit for later use by the shuttle. The marginal cost of such a mission would have been incredibly low; but NASA was confident that Skylab would stay in orbit until shuttle flights began in 1978 - 1979. But the shuttle was delayed, and faster atmospheric decay than expected resulted in Skylab crashing to earth before the first shuttle mission was flown.
Manned seven crew. Deployed Nusat; carried Spacelab 3. Payloads: Spacelab-3 experiments, habitable Spacelab and mission peculiar experiment support structure. The experiments represented a total of five different disciplines: materials processing in space, environmental observa-tions, life science, astrophysics, and technology experiments. Two getaway specials (GAS). The flight crew was split into gold and silver shifts working 12-hour days during the flight.