Connecticut's Connection to the Space Program

The flawless touch down of the space shuttle Atlantis early this past Thursday morning brought the 30-year space shuttle program to an end. Over the course of the 135-mission program, seven of the shuttle astronauts had strong ties to Connecticut.

Five of the seven astronauts were born and raised in the state – Daniel T. Barry, Sherwood C. Spring, Pierre J. Thuot, Daniel C. Burbank, and Rick Mastracchio. Two of the astronauts were born elsewhere but attended college in the Nutmeg state – Joseph P. Allen from Indiana and Franklin R. Chang-Diaz from Costa Rica. These seven astronauts combined for a total of 21 flights from November, 1982 until April, 2010, and 3,468 hours in space! One of them, Daniel C. Burbank, was born in Manchester, is a 1979 graduate of Tolland High School.

Born in Crawfordsville, Indiana on June 27, 1937, Dr. Joseph P. Allen was a member of one of the earliest shuttle flights – the fifth one – from November 11-16, 1982. STS-5* was the first mission to be flown with a crew of four. Allen served as a mission specialist. The fifth shuttle mission was the first one to deploy satellites. Flying on the ill-fated shuttle Columbia, the four-man crew became the first group to land through clouds on the runway at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Joseph Allen spent six years in New Haven at Yale University, getting his masters’ degree there in 1961 and his doctorate in physics in 1965. In addition, he was a staff physicist in the Nuclear Structure Laboratory at Yale in 1965-1966. Allen flew again in 1984 aboard the shuttle Discovery. Overall, Joseph Allen completed 208 orbits of the earth in his two flights, logging 314 hours in space. Dr. Allen currently lives in Washington, D.C., where he is CEO of a company called Space Industries International, appropriately located on Connecticut Avenue.

Another shuttle astronaut who attended school in Connecticut was Franklin R. Chang-Diaz. Born in Costa Rica, Chang-Diaz graduated from Hartford Public High School and was then admitted to the University of Connecticut. He majored in mechanical engineering, graduating in 1973. He then received a doctorate in physics from MIT in 1977. Selected by NASA for training, Chang-Diaz became an astronaut in August of 1981. A veteran of seven flights from 1986-2002, Chang-Diaz logged 1,601 hours in space – almost the sum total of the other shuttle pilots from Connecticut combined! He flew in four different shuttles – Atlantis, Columbia, Endeavour, and Discovery – and participated in three space walks. Dr. Chang-Diaz retired from NASA in July of 2005.

Although born in Hartford on September 3, 1944, Colonel Sherwood C. Spring spent most of his youth in Rhode Island, where he graduated from high school in 1963. Spring received an appointment to West Point. He received a bachelor’s degree in engineering in 1967. Colonel Spring then served two tours of duty in Vietnam – one as a helicopter pilot with the 1st Cavalry Division. A versatile pilot, Springer has had experience flying 25 different airplanes and helicopters. He served as a mission specialist in his only shuttle flight from November 26 to December 3, 1985. “Woody” Spring spent 165 hours in outer space. He retired from NASA in August of 1988 and has held various jobs related with the space program since then.

Pierre J. Thuot (pronounced “Thoo-it”) was born in Groton on May 19, 1955, but spent most of his youth in Virginia. Thuot graduated 30th in his class in 1977 from the U.S. Naval Academy with a degree in physics. He then attended flight school, receiving his wings in August 1978. Like Colonel Spring, Thuot is a versatile pilot with more than 3,500 hours of flight time in 40 different aircraft; in addition, he has 270 carrier landings. NASA selected Thuot as an astronaut in 1985. He participated in three shuttle flights beginning in 1990. Thuot was onboard the Endeavour during its maiden voyage in 1992. During that mission he participated in the longest space walk ever – 8 hours and 29 minutes – while repairing two satellites. His final mission was on Columbia and was notable for its low orbit – 105 miles above the earth, the lowest ever recorded by a shuttle. That mission was also one of the longest ever, traveling some 5.8 million miles in space over a period of 13 days. Thuot left NASA in 1995 and returned to the Navy. He works in the engineering department of the Naval Academy.

Astronaut Rick Mastracchio was born in Waterbury on February 11, 1960. He graduated from Crosby High School there in 1978, attended UConn, and worked for Hamilton Standard in Windsor Locks as an engineer from 1982-1987. Mastracchio was chosen as an astronaut in 1996. He is a veteran of three space flights as a mission specialist on STS-106, STS-118, and on STS-131 in April 2010, making him the most recent astronaut with Connecticut ties to be on a shuttle mission. Mastracchio has logged nearly 40 days in space. All three of his missions centered around activities associated with the International Space Station. Mastracchio is still actively involved with the space program and has been assigned to the Expedition 38 crew as a flight engineer. That crew will hitch a ride to the International Space Station with a Russian crew aboard Soyuz 37 in November 2013.

Astronaut Daniel T. Barry was born in Norwalk on December 30, 1953 but like astronauts Spring and Thuot spent most of his formative years in another state, in his case, Louisiana. Following high school graduation in 1971, Barry attended Cornell University where he received a degree in electrical engineering in 1975. Barry did follow-up graduate work at Princeton where he obtained a doctorate in electrical engineering; additionally, the multi-talented Barry received a doctorate in medicine from the University of Miami in 1982! Dr. Barry’s studies center around the connections between electrical signals and human body movement. Barry’s first shuttle flight occurred in 1996 with STS-72. He also was part of the STS-99 mission in 1999 and STS-101 in 2001. Overall, Dr. Barry has spent 734 hours in space and was part of four space walks totaling over 25 hours. He retired from NASA in 2005 to start his own company called Denbar Robotics, in western Massachusetts. Dan Barry also appeared on the TV show Survivor in season 12.

Astronaut Daniel C. Burbank was born July 27, 1961 in Manchester, but was raised in Tolland. He graduated from Tolland High School in 1979. Following high school graduation, Captain Burbank attended the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London where he obtained a degree in electrical engineering in 1985. He then attended Navy flight school in Florida. Upon obtaining his wings, he was assigned to various Coast Guard stations throughout the United States. He logged over 4,000 flight hours, primarily in helicopters, on more than 1,800 missions, 300 of which were search and rescue. NASA selected Burbank in 1996 for astronaut training for the shuttle program. He took his first shuttle flight on Atlantis in 200 (STS-106). The purpose of that flight was to work on the International Space Station (ISS). His final flight was also on Atlantis on STS-115 in September of 2006. Once again, this mission centered on the ISS. Currently, Captain Burbank is scheduled for a six-month tour of duty on the ISS beginning in September of this year. His parents, Dan and Joan Burbank, still reside in Tolland.

The thirty-year shuttle program began and ended on significant anniversaries for space exploration. The first space shuttle, Columbia, took flight on April 12, 1981, exactly twenty years after Yuri Gagarin’s manned flight. The program lasted until last Thursday, July 21, 2011, forty-two years to the day from the time that Neil Armstrong became the first human to take a step on the moon. During those 135 shuttle missions, seven men with strong Connecticut connections participated in the program from beginning to end, making significant contributions to its success.

Notes, Sources, Links:

1.      *The official NASA name for the shuttle program is the “Space Transportation System,” often abbreviated as “STS.” The abbreviation is followed by a dash and a number. The number references the mission number.

2.      Biographical information can be found for all astronauts at the nasa.gov site.

3.      The shuttle was known as a LEO vehicle—low earth orbit vehicle.

4.      One of Connecticut’s best-known companies, UTC, has been responsible for the fuel cells on all of the shuttle missions. To read more about UTC’s valuable role in the shuttle program, click on this link:

 http://www.utcpower.com/products/space-defense