Biography
Born: January 23, 1930 in Okemah, Oklahoma
Joined NASA: April 4, 1966
Left NASA: September 1, 1975
Space Flights: 1
Number of EVAs: 2
Total EVA Time: 13 hours, 37 minutes
MISSION ASSIGNMENTS
Apollo 7
Assignment: Support Crew & Capcom
Apollo 11
Assignment: Capcom
Apollo 13
Assignment: Capcom
Apollo 14
Assignment: Capcom
Skylab 4
November 16, 1973 – February 8, 1974
Assignment: Command Module Pilot
Flight Duration: 84 days, 1 hours, 15 minutes
HIGHLIGHTS
B.Sc., Education, Oklahoma Baptist University, 1951
M.Sc., Mathematics, Oklahoma State University, 1960
Joined USAF 1951, recieved wings in 1953.
1953-1954, Combat tour in Korea.
1955-1957, Flew with the USAF Aerobatic team the “Thunderbirds”.
After returning to University and recieving Masters degree became Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the USAF Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1960-1963.
1964-1965 served on an exchange to the Royal Air Force in Britain as a test pilot.
1973-1974, Command Module Pilot on the last, and longest, Skylab mission, establishing a duration record he shared with his crewmates Gerald Carr and Ed Gibson, until the advent of the Shuttle-Mir series of flights in the 1990’s.
Left NASA to pursue a career as a consultant to aerospace and energy companies.
Worked with Boeing in support of the space station “Freedom” project.
Member, subcommittee of the Aerospace Medical Advisory Committee at NASA establishing procedures to certify crew members for extended duration missions in space.
From September 1987 to February 1988, worked with NASA’s Office of Exploration on robot concepts for future Mars missions.
In May 1989, concluded a two year study on developing requirements for EVA for Earth orbit and Lunar, Mars and Phobos surfaces.
Author, “How Do You Go to the Bathroom in Space”, 1974 and “The Trikon Deception”, a collaborative Science Fiction novel with noted SF author Ben Bova, 1994.