Carl J. Meade

Carl Meade
Carl Meade
	NASA astronaut
Rank	Colonel, USAF
Time in space	29d 16h 14m
Selection	NASA Group 11 (1985)
Missions	STS-38; STS-50; STS-64
Mission insignia

Carl Joseph Meade (born November 16, 1950) is a former NASA astronaut.

Personal data

Born November 16, 1950, at Chanute Air Force Base, Illinois. Married. Two sons. Resides in Canyon Country, California. He enjoys woodworking, home-built aircraft construction, racquetball, jogging, and snow skiing. His parents were John Migliorini (later changed to Meade) and Esther Josephine Compitiello.

He graduated in 1968 from

Electronics Engineering from The University of Texas and in 1975 completed a Master of Science degree in Electronics Engineering from California Institute of Technology. He currently works for Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems as an engineering manager on the Crew Exploration Vehicle

project.

Experience

Prior to entering active duty in the

A-37, and various gliders, teaching performance, stability/control, departure/spins, and radar flight test techniques. He was also the departure/spin lead instructor and avionics systems test training aircraft program manager.^{[citation needed}

]

He has logged over 4,800 hours of jet time in 27 different aircraft.[1]

NASA experience

Selected by

CAPCOM

) in Mission Control and the lead astronaut for Rendezvous and Docking Operations during the two years following STS-50.

A veteran of three space flights, Meade has logged over 712 hours in space. He served as a mission specialist on STS-38 in 1990, STS-50 in 1992, and STS-64 in 1994.

STS-38 launched at night from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on November 15, 1990. Meade conducted Department of Defense operations during this five-day flight which concluded after 80 orbits of the Earth in 117 hours, 54 minutes, 28 seconds. In the first Shuttle recovery in Florida since 1985, Space Shuttle Atlantis and her five-man crew landed back at the Kennedy Space Center on November 20, 1990.

fluid physics, combustion science, solid state physics, and biotechnology. This flight was also the first to utilize the Extended Duration Orbiter capabilities of the newly modified Orbiter Columbia. Mission duration was 331 hours, 30 minutes, 4 seconds. After 221 orbits of the Earth

, the crew of Columbia landed at the Kennedy Space Center on July 9, 1992, thus ending the longest flight in the history of the Space Shuttle Program.

Most recently, Meade flew on

lasers

for environmental research, deployment and retrieval of a solar science satellite, and the performance of plume characterization studies of the reaction control thruster exhaust. Mission duration was 10 days, 22 hours, 51 minutes.

Meade has served as the Deputy Division Chief of the Crew and Thermal Systems Division and as the Chief of the Flight Support Branch of the Astronaut Office. In March 1996, Meade left NASA and the military to join the Lockheed

X-33

vehicle.