Readdy

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Readdy

William Francis (Bill) Readdy Status: Active. Trained as: Astronaut. Profession: Pilot. Sex: Male. Marital Status: Married. Children: Three. Birth Date: 24 January 1952. Birth City: Quonset Point. Birth State: Rhode Island. Birth Country: USA. Nationality: American. Group: 1987 NASA Group. Date Selected: 05 June 1987. Number of Flights: 3. Total Time: 28.03 days.

NASA Official Biography

NAME: William F. Readdy (Captain, U.S. Naval Reserve)

NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:

Born January 24, 1952, in Quonset Point, Rhode Island, but considers McLean, Virginia, to be his hometown. Married to Colleen Nevius. They have two children. He enjoys sailing, racquet sports, flying, reading. His father, Francis Readdy, resides in McLean. Her parents, William and Barbara Nevius, reside in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

EDUCATION:

Graduated from McLean High School, McLean, Virginia, in 1970; received a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering (with honors) from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1974.

ORGANIZATIONS:

Member, Society of Experimental Test Pilots, American Astronautical Society, and Association of Space Explorers.

SPECIAL HONORS:

Recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, two NASA Exceptional Service Medals, three NASA Space Flight Medals, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, Navy Expeditionary medal, two National Defense Service Medals, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, and various unit and service awards. Distinguished graduate, U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. U.S. Naval Test Pilot School Instructor of the Year (1984).

EXPERIENCE:

Readdy graduated from Annapolis in 1974, and was designated a naval aviator in September 1975 at Beeville, Texas. Following training in the A-6 Intruder at VA-42 Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia, he joined Attack Squadron 85 aboard the USS Forrestal deployed to the North Atlantic and Mediterranean from 1976 until 1980. Upon completion of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, Patuxent River, Maryland, he served as project pilot on a variety of test programs while assigned to the Strike Aircraft Test Directorate. Following a short tour as an instructor pilot at the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, he reported in 1984 to the USS Coral Sea, on Caribbean and Mediterranean deployments. In October 1986 Readdy accepted a Naval Reserve commission and joined NASA as a research pilot. He is affiliated with the U.S. Naval Reserve, and is assigned to the Naval Space Command.

He has logged over 6,500 flying hours in over 60 types of fixed wing and helicopters and over 550 carrier landings.

NASA EXPERIENCE:

Readdy joined NASA's Johnson Space Center in October 1986 as an aerospace engineer and instructor pilot at Ellington Field, Houston, Texas, where he served as program manager for the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Selected as an astronaut by NASA in the 1987 Group. His technical assignments to date include: Orbiter Subsystems, Orbiter Landing and Rollout; Orbiter Project Staff; SAIL; Training Officer; Safety Officer; Operations Development Branch Chief; and NASA Director of Operations, Star City, Russia. A veteran pilot astronaut with three space flights, STS-42 (January 22-30, 1992), STS-51 (September 12-22, 1993) and STS-79 (September 16-26, 1996), he has logged over 672 hours in space. STS-79 rendezvoused and docked with the Russian Space Station Mir, transferred over 3.5 tons of supplies to and from the Mir and exchanged U.S. astronauts on Mir for the first time - leaving John Blaha and bringing Shannon Lucid home after her record six months stay aboard Mir. Readdy is currently assigned to the Space Shuttle Program Office at the Johnson Space Center as Manager, Program Development. He remains on flight status and is eligible for future space shuttle mission command.

JANUARY 1997

Flight Log

STS-42 - - 1992 Jan 22 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 8.05 days. Flight details: STS-42.
Manned seven crew. Carried International Microgravity Laboratory-1. Payloads: International Microgravity Laboratory (lML)-1, getaway special (GAS) bridge with 10 getaway specials, IMAX camera, Gelation of Sols: Applied Microgravity Research (GOSAMR)-1, Investigations Into Polymer Mem-brane Processing (IPMP), Radiation Monitoring Equipment (RME)-lll, Student Experiment 81-09: Convection in Zero Gravity, Student Experiment 83-02: Capillary Rise of Liquid Through Granular Porous Media.
STS-51 - - 1993 Sep 12 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 9.84 days. Flight details: STS-51.
Deployed and retrieved Orfeus-SPAS. During the EVA conducted tests in support of the Hubble Space Telescope first servicing mission and future EVAs, including Space Station assembly and maintenance. First night landing at KSC. Payloads: Advanced Communication Technology Sat-ellite (ACTS)/Transfer Orbit Stage (TOS), Orbiting Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer�Shuttle Pallet Satellite (ORFEUS-SPAS) with Remote IMAX Camera System (RICS), Limited Duration Space Environ-ment Candidate Materials Exposure (LDCE) (Beam Configuration C), Commercial Protein Crystal Growth (CPCG Block II), Chromosome and Plant Cell Division in Space (CHROMEX), High Resolution Shuttle Glow Spectroscopy-A (HRSGS-A), Auroral Photography Experiment-B (APE-B), Investigation into Polymer Membrane Processing (IPMP), Radiation Monitoring Equip-ment (RME-III), Air Force Maui Optical Site Cal-ibration Test (AMOS), IMAX In-Cabin Camera.
STS-79 - - 1996 Sep 16 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 10.14 days. Flight details: STS-79.
On September 19 Atlantis docked with the Russian Mir space station. Aboard Atlantis in the payload bay were the Orbiter Docking System, the modified Long Tunnel, and the Spacehab Double Module, containing supplies for the Mir. Astronaut John Blaha relieved Shannon Lucid as NASA resident on the complex. Atlantis undocked from the Mir complex on September 23 at 23:33 GMT. Valeriy Korzun, Aleksandr Kaleri and John Blaha remain on Mir. On September 26 Atlantis closed its payload bay doors, and at 11:06 GMT fired its OMS engines for a three minute long deorbit burn. After entry interface at 11:42 GMT the spaceship flew across Canada and the US for a landing at the Kennedy Space Center's Runway 15 at 12:13 GMT.

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Last update 3 May 2001.
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