Wilcutt

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Wilcutt

Terrence Wade (Terry) Wilcutt Status: Active. Trained as: Astronaut. Profession: Pilot. Sex: Male. Marital Status: Married. Children: Two. Birth Date: 31 October 1949. Birth City: Russellville. Birth State: Kentucky. Birth Country: USA. Nationality: American. Group: 1990 NASA Group. Date Selected: 17 January 1990. Number of Flights: 4. Total Time: 42.00 days.

NASA Official Biography

NAME: Terrence W. Wilcutt (Lieutenant Colonel, USMC)

NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:

Born October 31, 1949, in Russellville, Kentucky. Enjoys flying, running, weight lifting, woodworking

EDUCATION:

Graduated from Southern High School, Louisville, Kentucky in 1967; received a bachelor of arts degree in math from Western Kentucky University in 1974.

ORGANIZATIONS:

Member of Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP).

SPECIAL HONORS:

Recipient of the Defense Superior Service Medal, NASA Space Flight Medals (2), Navy Commendation Medal, and Sea Service Deployment Ribbon. Distinguished Graduate of the United States Naval Test Pilot School.

EXPERIENCE:

After graduation from college in 1974, Wilcutt taught high school math for two years prior to entering the Marine Corps. He was commissioned in 1976 and earned his wings in 1978. Following initial F-4 Phantom training in VMFAT-101, he reported to VMFA-235, Kaneohe, Hawaii. While assigned to VMFA-235, Wilcutt attended the Naval Fighter Weapons School (Topgun) and made two overseas deployments to Japan, Korea, and the Philippines. In 1983, he was selected for F/A-18 conversion training and served as an F/A-18 Fighter Weapons and Air Combat Maneuvering Instructor in VFA-125, Lemoore, California. In 1986, Wilcutt was selected to attend the United States Naval Test Pilot School (USNTPS),where he earned the title "Distinguished Graduate." Following graduation from USNTPS he was assigned as a test pilot/project officer for Strike Aircraft Test Directorate (SATD) at the Naval Aircraft Test Center, Patuxent River, Maryland. While assigned to SATD, Wilcutt flew the F/A-18 Hornet, the A-7 Corsair II, the F-4 Phantom, and various other aircraft to test a wide variety of projects and classified programs. He has over 4,400 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft.

NASA EXPERIENCE:

Selected by NASA in January 1990, Wilcutt became an astronaut in July 1991. Technical assignments to date include: working on Space Shuttle Main Engine and External Tank issues; serving on the astronaut support personnel team at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, supporting Space Shuttle launches and landings, and technical issues for the Astronaut Office Operations Development Branch. A veteran of two space flights, he has logged over 512 hours in space. He served as pilot on STS-68 (September 30-October 11, 1994) and STS-79 September 16-26, 1996). Wilcutt will command the crew of STS-89, the eighth of nine planned missions to dock the Space Shuttle with Russia's Mir space station. STS-89 is scheduled for a January 1998 launch on Space Shuttle Discovery.

STS-68, Space Radar Lab-2 (SRL-2), launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on September 30, 1994. As part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth, SRL-2 was the second flight of three advanced radars called SIR-C/X-SAR (Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar), and a carbon-monoxide pollution sensor, MAPS (Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites). SIR-C/X-SAR and MAPS operated together in Endeavour's cargo bay to study Earth's surface and atmosphere, creating radar images of Earth's surface environment and mapping global production and transport of carbon monoxide pollution. Real-time crew observations of environmental conditions, along with over 14,000 photographs aided the science team in interpreting the SRL data. The SRL-2 mission was a highly successful test of technology intended for long-term environmental and geological monitoring of planet Earth. Following 183 orbits of the Earth, the eleven-day mission ended with Space Shuttle Endeavour landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on October 11, 1994.

STS-79, fourth in the joint American-Russian Shuttle-Mir series of missions, launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, on September 16, 1996. STS-79 rendezvoused with the Russian MIR space station and ferried supplies, personnel, and scientific equipment to this base 240 miles above the Earth. The crew 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. Following 160 orbits of the Earth, the ten-day mission ended with Space Shuttle Atlantis landing at KSC on September 26, 1996.

MARCH 1997

Flight Log

STS-68 - - 1994 Sep 30 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 11.24 days. Flight details: STS-68.
Carried SIR-C SAR. Landed at Edwards Air Force Base on October 11. Payloads: Space Radar Laboratory (SRL) 2, five Getaway Special payloads, Chromosome and Plant Cell Division in Space (CHROMEX) 5, Biological Research in Canisters (BRIC) 01, Cosmic Radiation Effects and Activation Monitor (CREAM), Military Application of Ship Tracks (MAST), Commercial Protein Crystal Growth (CPCG).
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.
STS-89 - - 1998 Jan 23 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 8.82 days. Flight details: STS-89.
Penultimate Shuttle mission to Mir. Andy Thomas replaced David Wolf as the resident NASA astronaut. Endeavour docked with the SO module on Mir at 20:14 GMT on January 24, 1998.
Payloads included:
- Orbiter middeck: CEBAS (German/US biological module with fish and snails); dinosaur skull (part of a museum educational program)
- Bay 1: Tunnel Adapter
- Bay 3: Orbiter Docking System/External Airlock
- Bay 4-7: Transfer Tunnel
- Bay 8-12: Spacehab Double Module (payloads included supplies for Mir, X-ray crystallography detector planned for the International Space Station)
- Bay 13P: Getaway Special GABA carrier with G-141, G-145 (German materials processing experiments)
- Bay 13S: Getaway Special GABA carrier with G-093 (University of Michigan fluid dynamics experiment), G-432 (Chinese materials processing experiment)
Despite fits problems with his Sokol emergency spacesuit, Andy Thomas replaced David Wolf as a Mir crew member on January 25. Endeavour undocked from Mir on January 29 at 16:57 GMT and made one flyaround of the station before departing and landing at Kennedy Space Center's runway 15 at 22:35 GMT on January 31.
STS-106 - - 2000 Sep 8 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 11.80 days. Flight details: STS-106.
Atlantis was launched from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39B. Solid rocket boosters RSRM-75 and external tank ET-103 were used to loft the orbiter into space. The inital orbit of 72 x 328 km x 51.6 deg was circularised by the Shuttle's OMS engines at apogee.
Atlantis docked with the PMA-2 adapter on the International Space Station at 05:51 GMT on September 10. The orbiter's small RCS engines were used to gently reboost the station's orbit several times.
Astronauts Lu and Malenchenko made a spacewalk on September 11 beginning at 04:47 GMT. They rode the RMS arm up to Zvezda and began installing cables, reaching a distance of 30 meters from the airlock when installing Zvezda's magnetometer. Total EVA duration was 6 hours 21 minutes.
During their 12-day flight, the astronauts spent a week docked to the International Space Station during which they worked as movers, cleaners, plumbers, electricians and cable installers. In all, they spent 7 days, 21 hours and 54 minutes docked to the International Space Station, outfitting the new Zvezda module for the arrival of the Expedition One crew later this fall.
The Shuttle undocked from ISS at 03:44 GMT on September 18 and made two circuits of the station each lasting half an orbit, before separating finally at 05:34 GMT. The payload bay doors were closed at 04:14 GMT on September 20 and at 06:50 GMT the OMS engines ignited for a three minute burn lowering the orbit from 374 x 386 km x 51.6 deg to 22 x 380 km x 51.6 deg. After entry interface at 07:25 GMT, the orbiter glided to a landing on runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center with main gear touchdown at 07:56:48 GMT for a mission duration of 283 hr 11min.

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Last update 3 May 2001.
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