science

NASA Astronaut Group 9

NASA Astronaut Group 9 is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand NASA Astronaut Group 9 rather than just read about it. In short: NASA Astronaut Group 9 was a group of 19 NASA astronauts announced on May 29, 1980, and completed their training by 1981. This group was selected to supplement the 35 astronauts that had been selected in 1978, and marked the first time that non-Americans were trained as mission specialists with the selections of ESA astronauts Claude Nicollier and Wubbo Ockels.

Key takeaways

NASA Astronaut Group 9 belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect NASA Astronaut Group 9 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of NASA Astronaut Group 9 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

NASA Astronaut Group 9 was a group of 19 NASA astronauts announced on May 29, 1980, and completed their training by 1981. This group was selected to supplement the 35 astronauts that had been selected in 1978, and marked the first time that non-Americans were trained as mission specialists with the selections of ESA astronauts Claude Nicollier and Wubbo Ockels. In keeping with the previous group, astronaut candidates were divided into pilots and mission specialists, with eight pilots, eleven mission specialists, and two international mission specialists within the group.

Achievements As with the previous group, several spaceflight firsts were achieved, including:

First Costa Rican astronaut: Franklin Chang-Diaz (January 12, 1986, STS-61-C) First Dutch citizen in space: Wubbo Ockels (October 30, 1985, STS-61-A) First Swiss astronaut: Claude Nicollier (July 31, 1992, STS-46) First African-American Marine in space: Charles Bolden (January 12, 1986, STS-61-C) First person to be launched into space more than six times: Jerry Ross (April 8, 2002, STS-110) First astronaut spouse selected as an astronaut: William Fisher (August 27, 1985, STS-51-I; married to Anna Fisher, Group 8 astronaut) In addition, Chang-Diaz and Ross share the world record for the most spaceflights, with seven each. Bolden also became the second astronaut to serve as NASA Administrator, appointed in July 2009.

Group members

Pilots John E. Blaha (born 1942), U.S. Air Force (5 flights) STS-29 Discovery — March 1989 — Pilot — Deployed TDRS-D STS-33 Discovery — November 1989 — Pilot — Was a classified United States Department of Defense mission STS-43 Atlantis — August 1991 — Commander — Deployed TDRS-E STS-58 Columbia — October 1993 — Commander — Spacelab: SLS-2 STS-79 Atlantis — September 1996 — Mission Specialist 4 — Launched for long duration flight aboard Mir Mir EO-22: Board Engineer 2 STS-81 Atlantis — January 1997 — Mission Specialist 4 — Landed from long duration flight aboard Mir Charles F. Bolden, Jr. (born 1946), U.S. Marine Corps (4 flights) - Former NASA Administrator STS-61-C Columbia — January 1986 — Pilot — Deployed Ku-1 communications satellite STS-31 Discovery — April 1990 — Pilot — Deployed the Hubble Space Telescope STS-45 Atlantis — March 1992 — Commander — ATLAS-1 STS-60 Discovery — February 1994 — Commander — Spacehab 2 Roy D. Bridges, Jr. (born 1943), U.S. Air Force (1 flight) STS-51-F Challenger — July 1985 — Pilot — Spacelab 2 Guy S. Gardner (born 1948), U.S. Air Force (2 flights) STS-27 Atlantis — December 1988 — Pilot — Was a classified United States Department of Defense mission STS-35 Columbia — December 1990 — Pilot — ASTRO-1 Ronald J. Grabe (born 1945), U.S. Air Force (4 flights) STS-51-J Atlantis — October 1985 — Pilot — Was a classified United States Department of Defense mission STS-30 Atlantis — May 1989 — Pilot — Deployed the Magellan probe STS-42 Discovery — January 1992 — Commander — Spacelab: IML-1 STS-57 Endeavour — June 1993 — Commander — Spacehab Bryan D. O'Connor (born 1946), U.S. Marine Corps (2 flights) - Former NASA Chief of Safety and Mission Assurance STS-61-B Atlantis — November 1985 — Pilot — Deployed 3 communication satellites STS-40 Columbia — June 1991 — Commander — Spacelab: SLS-1 Richard N. Richards (born 1946), U.S. Navy (4 flights) STS-28 Columbia — August 1989 — Pilot — Was a classified United States Department of Defense mission STS-41 Discovery — October 1990 — Commander — Deployed the Ulysses (spacecraft) STS-50 Columbia — June 1992 — Commander — Spacelab: U.S. Microgravity Laboratory 1 STS-64 Discovery — September 1994 — Commander — Lidar In-space Technology Experiment (LITE) Michael J. Smith (1945–1986), U.S. Navy (1 planned flight) - Died During the Challenger Disaster STS-51-L Challenger — January 1986 — Pilot — Planned to Deploy TDRS-B

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with NASA Astronaut Group 9

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what NASA Astronaut Group 9 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to NASA Astronaut Group 9 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about NASA Astronaut Group 9 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of NASA Astronaut Group 9

In research: NASA Astronaut Group 9 appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses NASA Astronaut Group 9 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: NASA Astronaut Group 9 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1980 establishments in the United States, 1980 in spaceflight, Lists of astronauts, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for NASA Astronaut Group 9 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study NASA Astronaut Group 9 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what NASA Astronaut Group 9 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain NASA Astronaut Group 9 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is NASA Astronaut Group 9 in simple terms?

Why does NASA Astronaut Group 9 matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study NASA Astronaut Group 9?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on NASA Astronaut Group 9.