Karol Bobko
Karol Joseph "Bo" Bobko was an American Air Force officer, test pilot, aerospace engineer, MOL astronaut, and NASA shuttle astronaut. Selected for the Air Force Manned Orbiting Laboratory program in 1966 and transferred to NASA after MOL was canceled, he became part of the bridge from military spaceplane planning to operational shuttle flight.
- Born
- December 23, 1937
- Died
- August 17, 2023
- Birthplace
- Brooklyn, New York,United States
Flights
3
Spacewalks
0
EVA time
N/A
In space
16 days, 2 hours, 3 minutes
Bio
Bobko was one of the earliest United States Air Force Academy graduates to become an astronaut. His background included fighter and test-pilot work, aerospace engineering, and years of shuttle development before he reached orbit.
His first spaceflight was STS-6 in 1983, the first flight of Challenger. Bobko served as pilot with Paul Weitz as during a mission that deployed the first Tracking and Data Relay Satellite and included the first Space Shuttle by Story Musgrave and Donald Peterson.
Bobko later commanded STS-51-D in 1985, a Discovery mission that deployed communications satellites and included an unscheduled EVA attempt to repair Syncom IV-3. He then commanded STS-51-J, the first flight of Atlantis and a classified Department of Defense mission.
Across three flights, Bobko became the first person to fly on three different shuttle . His career links the MOL program, early Challenger operations, satellite-repair experience, and national-security shuttle missions.