Shepherd

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Shepherd

William McMichael (Bill) Shepherd Status: Active. Trained as: Astronaut. Profession: Mission Specialist. Sex: Male. Marital Status: Married. Birth Date: 26 July 1949. Birth City: Oak Ridge. Birth State: Tennessee. Birth Country: USA. Nationality: American. Group: 1984 NASA Group. Date Selected: 23 May 1984. Number of Flights: 4. Total Time: 159.33 days.

NASA Official Biography

NAME: William M. Shepherd (Captain, USN)

NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:

Born July 26, 1949, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, but considers Babylon, New York his hometown. Married to Beth Stringham of Houston, Texas. He enjoys sailing, swimming, and working in his garage. His mother, Mrs. Barbara Shepherd, resides in Bethesda, Maryland. His father, Mr. George R. Shepherd, is deceased.

EDUCATION:

Graduated from Arcadia High School, Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1967; received a bachelor of science degree in aerospace engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1971, and the degrees of ocean engineer and master of science in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1978.

ORGANIZATIONS:

Member of the U.S. Naval Institute and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

SPECIAL HONORS:

Recipient of NASA's "Steve Thorne" Aviation Award.

EXPERIENCE:

Shepherd was graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1971, and has served with the Navy's Underwater Demolition Team ELEVEN, SEAL Teams ONE and TWO, and Special Boat Unit TWENTY.

NASA EXPERIENCE:

Selected by NASA in May 1984. He made three flights as a mission specialist and logged 440 hours in space. From November 1993 to January 1996, Shepherd served as Deputy Manager, Space Station Program. He is currently training in Russia and is scheduled to be the first U.S. astronaut to work aboard the International Space Station.

On his first flight, STS-27 (December 2-6, 1988), Shepherd served on the crew aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis. The mission lasted 105 hours and carried Department of Defense payloads.

On STS-41 (October 6-10, 1990), during 66 orbits of the Earth, the crew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery successfully deployed the Ulysses spacecraft, starting it on a four-year journey (via Jupiter) to investigate the polar regions of the Sun.

Shepherd flew a third mission, STS-52 (October 22 - November 1, 1992), aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. The 10-day mission deployed the Laser Geodynamic Satellite (LAGEOS), and conducted U.S. microgravity payload experiments.

CURRENT ASSIGNMENT:

Shepherd is scheduled to be the first U.S. astronaut to work aboard the International Space Station, and is currently training in Russia. A three person crew will be launched to the Space Station aboard a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan in January 1999.

JUNE 1997

Flight Log

STS-27 - - 1988 Dec 2 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 4.38 days. Flight details: STS-27.
Manned five crew. Deployed a classified payload. Orbits of Earth: 68. Landed at: Runway 17 dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base, . Landing Speed: 359 kph. Touchdown miss distance: 447.00 m. Landing Rollout: 2,171.00 m. Payloads: DoD Mission.
STS-41 - - 1990 Oct 6 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 4.09 days. Flight details: STS-41.
Manned five crew. Deployed Ulysses spacecraft. Payloads: Deploy Ulysses, Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet, Intelsat Solar Array Coupon, Solid-Surface Combustion Experiment, Investigations Into Polymer Membrane Processing, Chromo-some and Plant Cell Division in Space, Physiological Systems Experiment, Voice Command System, Radiation Monitoring Equipment III, Air Force Maui Optical Site.
STS-52 - - 1992 Oct 22 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 9.87 days. Flight details: STS-52.
Deployed Lageos 2, CTA. Payloads: Laser Geodynamic Satellite (LAGEOS) II/ Italian Research Interim Stage (IRIS), Canadian Experiments (CANEX) 2, United States Micro-gravity Payload (USMP) 1, Attitude Sensor Pack-age (ASP), Tank Pressure Control Experiment (TPCE), Physiological Systems Experiment (PSE), Heat Pipe Performance (HPP) experiment, Commercial Protein Crystal Growth (CPCG), Shuttle Plume Impingement Experiment (SPIE), Commercial Materials ITA Experiment (CMIX), Crystals by Vapor Transport Experiment (CVTE).
Soyuz TM-31 - - 2000 Oct 31 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 140.98 days. Flight details: Soyuz TM-31.
Soyuz 31 delivered the Expedition One crew to the International Space Station with Gidzenko as the Soyuz crew commander with the call-sign 'Uran'. The spacecraft docked at Zvezda's rear port at 0921 GMT on November 2. The hatch to Zvezda was opened at 1023 GMT. Once aboard ISS, Shepherd became the ISS Commander, with 'Station Alpha' as the ISS callsign. Soyuz TM-31, with Shepherd, Gidzenko and Krikalyov aboard, undocked from the -Y port on Zvezda on February 24, 2001 at 1006 GMT and redocked with the -Z port on Zarya at 1037 GMT. This freed the Zvezda port for a Progress resupply ship.

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Last update 3 May 2001.
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