Owen K. Garriott
Owen Kay Garriott was an American electrical engineer, scientist-astronaut, university professor, and NASA astronaut. Selected in NASA Astronaut Group 4 in 1965, he brought a research scientist's background into the astronaut corps at the start of the Apollo Applications and Skylab era.
- Born
- November 22, 1930
- Died
- April 15, 2019
- Birthplace
- Enid, Oklahoma,United States
Flights
2
Spacewalks
3
EVA time
13 hours, 43 minutes
In space
69 days, 18 hours, 56 minutes
Bio
Before NASA, Garriott served in the United States Navy and taught electrical engineering at Stanford University. His graduate work in ionospheric physics and radio science made him a natural fit for Skylab's solar, Earth-observation, and space-environment research program.
Garriott flew as Science Pilot on Skylab 3 in 1973 with Alan Bean and Jack Lousma. The crew lived aboard Skylab for nearly two months, extended the station's research program, performed , and continued maintenance work after the first crew made the workshop habitable.
He returned to space in 1983 on STS-9, the first Spacelab mission. That flight expanded reusable laboratory operations aboard the Space Shuttle and connected the Skylab science culture to the Shuttle-era laboratory model.
After NASA, Garriott worked in aerospace industry, taught, consulted, wrote, and supported research in extreme environments. His son Richard Garriott later flew to orbit as a private astronaut, making the Garriotts one of the best-known spaceflight families.