John Casper

Infobox Astronaut
name =John Howard Casper
type =Astronaut
nationality =American
date_birth =Birth date and age|1943|7|9
place_birth =Greenville, South Carolina
occupation =Test Pilot
rank =Colonel, USAF
selection =1984 NASA Group
time =34d 09h 52m
mission =STS-36, STS-54, STS-62, STS-77
insignia =

John Howard Casper (born July 9 1943) is an American astronaut. Although born in South Carolina, he considers Gainesville, Georgia to be his hometown. He was active in the Boy Scouts of America where he achieved its second highest rank, Life Scout. He graduated with a bachelor of science in engineering science from the United States Air Force Academy in 1966 and a master of science in astronautics from Purdue University in 1967.

Before he was an astronaut, Casper was a United States Air Force fighter pilot in the Vietnam War. He has logged over 7000 hours of flight time in 51 types of aircraft.

Casper became an astronaut in 1985. He has spent over 825 hours in space on four spaceflights.

In 1990, Casper made his first spaceflight aboard STS-36. This was a Department of Defense mission. He flew aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1993. The crew deployed the Tracking and Data Relay satellite during this mission.

Casper made his third spaceflight aboard STS-62 in 1994. The crew performed experiments in chemistry and space manufacturing. He made his last flight in 1996 aboard STS-77. The crew made several rendezvous sequences with four different satellites.

External links

* [http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/astronauts/english/casper_john.htm Spacefacts biography of John Casper]