Important Astronauts & Aeronautic Pioneers
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Owen K. Garriott, born in Enid on November 22, 1930, was aboard Skylab in 1973, which set a new record for duration in space...approximately double the previous record at 60 days. He went into space a second time aboard Spacelab-1 in 1983 for 10 days. He operated the world's first Amateur Radio Station in space. Mr. Garriott has also taught as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
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Shannon Lucid, though born in Shanghai, China, considers Oklahoma (Bethany) to be her home. She graduated from both Bethany High School and the University of Oklahoma. She became an astronaut in 1979. Ms. Lucid holds the international record for most flight hours in orbit by any non-Russian, as well as the record for the most flight hours by any woman. She also holds the U.S. single mission space flight endurance record on Mir, the Russian Space Station. She traveled 75.2 million miles in 188 days, 04 hours, 00 minutes, 14 seconds.
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Wiley Post was born on November 22, 1898, in Texas but moved with his family to Garvin County when he was 11. After losing his left eye in an oil field accident, he used his settlement money to buy his first plane. Eventually, while flying the Winnie Mae, Post set the record not once, but twice, for flying around the world. In June 1931, he flew with navigator, Harold Gatty, for 8 days, 16 hours. In June 1933, he flew solo in 7 days, 19 hours. Ironically, he died in a plane crash, along with Will Rogers, on August 15, 1935.
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Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr. was born in Shawnee on March 6, 1927. Cooper became an Air Force Colonel and became an aeronautical engineer and test pilot before being selected as a Mercury astronaut in 1959. He became the first astronaut to make a second orbital flight and gave the U.S. the lead in man-hours in space by accumulating a total of 225 hours and 15 minutes (1965). Gordon Cooper died in California on October 4, 2004. |
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Thomas Stafford was born on September 17, 1930, in Weatherford. He graduated from Weatherford High School and from the U.S. Naval Academy, where he graduated with honors in 1952. General Stafford commanded the Apollo 10 in 1969, which was the first flight of the lunar module to the moon and performed the entire lunar landing mission except the actual landing. He also commanded the Apollo for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission in July 1975, the joing space meeting between American Astronauts and Soviet Cosmonauts. |
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