Jerome Apt

Infobox Astronaut
name =Jerome III "Jay" Apt
type =Astronaut
nationality =American
date_birth =April 28, 1949
place_birth =Springfield, Massachusetts
occupation =Scientist
selection =1985 NASA Group
time =35d 07h 10m
mission =STS-37, STS-47, STS-59, STS-79
insignia =|

Jerome III "Jay" Apt, Ph.D. (born April 28, 1949 in Massachusetts) is an American astronaut. Before he became an astronaut, Apt was a physicist who worked on the Venus space probe project.

Apt graduated from Shady Side Academy and Harvard College. He earned a Ph.D. in Physics from MIT in 1976. He joined NASA in 1980 as a research scientist, and in 1986 became an astronaut. He has flown on four space missions and has logged over 847 hours in space.

In 1991, Apt flew aboard shuttle Atlantis where he made two spacewalks, where, along with Jerry Ross, he manually deployed the Gamma Ray Observatory's radio antenna when it failed to do so automatically; on the next day they tested hardware later used on the International Space Station. In 1992, he flew aboard shuttle Endeavour and performed life science experiments. In 1994, Apt was part of the first Space Radar Laboratory. This lab studied the Earth. In 1996, Apt flew aboard shuttle Atlantis and visited the Russian Mir space station.

Apt currently resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and is the Executive Director of the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center.

External links

* [http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/astronauts/english/apt_jerome.htm Spacefacts biography of Jerome Apt]
* [http://www.orbitexperience.com/ Jay Apt's Website Orbit Experience]