Science & invention / Military
Richard A. Searfoss
1956–2018 · astronaut, Air Force pilot, test pilot
Air Force colonel and three-time Space Shuttle astronaut, commander of the 1998 Neurolab mission, born in Mount Clemens, Michigan.
- Born
Mount Clemens, Michigan- Died
Bear Valley Springs, California
aged 62- Birth name
- Richard Alan Searfoss
- Also known as
- Rick Searfoss
- Field
- Science & invention, Military
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Searfoss was born in 1956 in Mount Clemens, the seat of Macomb County, but he considered Portsmouth, New Hampshire, his hometown. He graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1978, earned a master's degree in aeronautics at Caltech and flew F-111 fighter-bombers before becoming a test pilot. NASA selected him as an astronaut in 1990. He flew three Space Shuttle missions: as pilot of Columbia on STS-58 in 1993, a life-sciences flight, and of Atlantis on STS-76 in 1996, which docked with the Russian station Mir, and as commander of Columbia on STS-90 in 1998, the Neurolab mission devoted to the brain and nervous system. After leaving NASA he worked as a research test pilot and was chief judge of the Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight in 2004. He died in 2018.
Highlights
- Flew three Space Shuttle missions: STS-58, STS-76 and STS-90
- Commander of STS-90, the 1998 Neurolab mission
- Chief judge of the Ansari X Prize, 2004
- Born in Mount Clemens, Michigan, 1956