Byron K. Lichtenberg

Byron Kurt Lichtenberg
Byron Kurt Lichtenberg
	MIT Payload Specialist
Rank	Lieutenant colonel, USAF
Time in space	19d 05h 56m
Missions	STS-9, STS-45
Mission insignia

Byron Kurt Lichtenberg, Sc. D. (born February 19, 1948) is an American

Payload Specialist. In 1983, he and Ulf Merbold became the first Payload Specialists

to fly on the shuttle.

Personal

Born February 19, 1948, in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Married to Tamara Lichtenberg with five children, including two adopted Chinese daughters.

Education

Sc.B., aerospace engineering, Brown University (1969)
S.M., mechanical engineering, MIT (1975)
Sc.D., biomedical engineering, MIT (1979)
Sc.D., Westminster College (honorary)

Awards and honors

Organizations

Founding Member:

Association of Space Explorers
X-Prize Foundation

Member:

User Panel for National Space Biomedical Research Institute
Tau Beta Pi (honorary engineering society)
Sigma Xi (honorary scientific society)

Career

From 1978 to 1984 he was a researcher for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)/Canadian Vestibular experiments on Spacelab 1, Spacelab D-1, Spacelab SLS-1 and SLS-2, and a co-principal investigator for the Mental Workload and Performance experiment flown on IML-1 to assess human-computer workstation characteristics for the Space Station.

He was a founder of Payload Systems, Inc., a company that has provided hardware and flight support for MODE and MACE experiments for the

A-10, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Massachusetts Air National Guard.^[1] Lichtenberg flew 138 combat missions during the Vietnam War, and received two Distinguished Flying Crosses, ten Air Medals, and numerous other decorations. He flew as a captain for Southwest Airlines and is now a professor at LeTourneau University

in Longview Texas.