Norman Earl Thagard
Norman Earl Thagard is an American physician, engineer, Marine Corps officer, naval aviator, and former NASA astronaut. Selected in NASA Astronaut Group 8 in 1978, he became one of the shuttle era's most experienced medical and life-sciences astronauts.
- Born
- July 3, 1943
- Died
- N/A
- Birthplace
- Marianna, Florida,United States
Flights
5
Spacewalks
0
EVA time
N/A
In space
140 days, 13 hours, 24 minutes
Bio
Thagard entered NASA after Marine Corps aviation service and medical training. His mix of engineering, medicine, and flight experience made him a natural fit for shuttle missions that combined payload operations with biomedical research.
He flew on STS-7, STS-51-B, STS-30, and STS-42 before joining the Shuttle-Mir program. Those flights ranged from early satellite deployment to Spacelab life sciences and the deployment of Magellan toward Venus.
In 1995 Thagard launched on Soyuz TM-21 to Mir as part of Mir EO-18 and returned on STS-71 after a long-duration stay. He became the first American launched aboard Soyuz and set a new United States spaceflight-duration record at the time.
Thagard's career is important because it bridges early shuttle mission-specialist work and the international station-building era. His Mir flight gave NASA operational experience that directly fed into International planning.