- William Shepherd
Infobox Astronaut
name =William McMichael Shepherd
type =Astronaut
nationality =American
date_birth =July 26 1949
place_birth =Oak Ridge, Tennessee
occupation =Engineer
rank =Captain ,USN
selection =1984 NASA Group
time =159d 07h 49m
mission =STS-27 ,STS-41 ,STS-52 ,Soyuz TM-31 ,Expedition 1 ,STS-102
insignia =|William McMichael Shepherd (born
July 26 1949 ) is a former Americanastronaut who served as commander ofExpedition 1 , the first crew on theInternational Space Station . Shepherd is a recipient of theCongressional Space Medal of Honor .Biography
Shepherd was born in
Oak Ridge, Tennessee onJuly 26 ,1949 , but considers Babylon, New York his hometown. He is married to Beth Stringham of Houston, Texas. His mother, Barbara Shepherd, resides in Bethesda, Maryland. His father, George R. Shepherd, is deceased.Shepherd graduated from Arcadia High School, in
Scottsdale, Arizona , in 1967, and received a degree inaerospace engineering from theU.S. Naval Academy in 1971. After successful completion ofBUD/S , he joined the elite community ofNaval Special Warfare and qualified as a Navy SEAL. Then, in 1978, he obtained both an MS in mechanical engineering and the degree of Ocean Engineer from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology .hepherd at NASA
Shepherd was selected for the
NASA astronaut corps in 1984. In 1986, his Navy SEAL training proved unexpectedly useful to NASA as he participated in salvage operations of thespace shuttle "Challenger" after its destruction. Shepherd then served as a mission specialist on three space shuttle flights: missionSTS-27 in 1988, missionSTS-41 which deployed the Ulysses probe in 1990, and missionSTS-52 in 1992.In 1993, Shepherd was assigned to program management for the International Space Station (ISS). From
October 31 ,2000 , toMarch 21 ,2001 , he and Russiancosmonaut sYuri Gidzenko andSergey Krikalev served as Expedition 1, the first crew stationed at the ISS.Shepherd has logged over 159 days in space.
Awards received
*Shepherd was awarded the
Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 2003.*He is a recipient of NASA's "Steve Thorne" Aviation Award.
External links
* [http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/shepherd.html William M. Shepherd] at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) website.
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