Christopher Loria

Gus Loria
Gus Loria
	NASA astronaut
Rank	Colonel, USMC
Selection	NASA Group 16 (1996)

Christopher Joseph "Gus" Loria (born July 9, 1960, in Newton, Massachusetts) is a retired United States Marine Corps Colonel and a medically retired NASA astronaut. He was originally scheduled to fly on STS-113 as pilot; however, he was grounded from spaceflight due to a severe back injury.

Personal

Colonel "CJ" Loria was born in Belmont, Massachusetts. His mother, Joan Loria, resides in Maple Plain, Minnesota and his father, Robert L. Loria is deceased.^[1]

Education

Loria graduated from

John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he was twice selected as a Harvard University Fellow. As a Fellow he worked on clean energy technology, and CO₂ sequestration. In June 2008 he earned an Executive Certificate in Business Management and Leadership from the MIT Sloan School of Management

.

Military career

Loria received his commission after graduating from Annapolis in 1983, and was designated a

United States Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base

, California.

January 1994 to July 1996, he was assigned to the Strike Aircraft Test Squadron, Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, as an experimental test pilot. Loria distinguished himself in the areas of high angle of attack flight test, aircraft departure and spin testing, ordnance, flight controls and aircraft flying qualities testing for the F/A-18 Hornet, NASA F/A-18 ‘HARV’ thrust vectoring aircraft and the X-31A aircraft. Colonel Loria was the Naval Test Wing Atlantic's test pilot of the year in 1995. In 1996 he was the runner up for the Society of Experimental Test Pilot's coveted Iven C. Kinchloe Award for the test pilot of the year world-wide.

From August 2004 through February 2005 he was assigned as the Deputy Chief Engineer, Constellation Program at NASA Headquarters. In the fall of 2005 a NASA medical evaluation determined that his previous injuries disqualified him from further space flight assignments. Colonel Loria requested a transfer back to the US Marine Corps and left NASA in February 2005.

After returning to the

Okinawa, Japan and served as the Director of Operations (J3) for Cheyenne Mountain Complex, NORAD

before retiring from military service on December 1, 2008.

He has 3,079 hours of flight time and has flown 32 different aircraft.

NASA career

Loria's NASA experience includes assignment as test pilot and Project Officer for the

Dryden Flight Research Facility

, Edwards Air Force Base, California, from July 1994 to June 1995. He was also a test pilot on Dryden's F/A-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle or "HARV" during March 1995, conducting spin testing and the first successful excitation of the Hornet Falling Leaf out of control mode during flight test. Lead Department of the Navy test pilot on the NASA/U.S. Navy/Industry Aircraft Control Power Working Group.

Selected by NASA in April 1996 as an Astronaut Candidate, Loria reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996. Having completed two years of training and evaluation, he was qualified for flight assignment as a shuttle pilot. Loria was initially assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office as an Ascent and Entry CAPCOM. Loria served as an Ascent/Entry Capcom for Space Shuttle missions STS-102 (Mar. 2001), STS-106 (Sept. 2000), STS-97 (Dec. 2000), STS-102 (Mar 2001), STS-104 (June 2001), STS-105 (June 2001). Additionally, he served as an International Space Station (ISS) CAPCOM for Space Station Expedition III in the spring of 2001.

Assigned as pilot on

D.C

.

During the fall of 2004, Loria's injuries were deemed inoperable and resulted in his being medically disqualified from future space flight exploration missions. Loria requested assignment back to the operational forces of the Marine Corps.

He became a member of the Senior Executive Service and served as the Director of the Earth Resources Observation and Science center (EROS), with the U.S. Geological Survey in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Colonel Loria is now retired, and resides in Orono, Minnesota.

Post NASA career

He served as a consultant for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Office of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Office of Congressman Jim Bridenstine, and International Launch Services, Inc. (ILS). With SAIC and later Leidos, he worked on National strategic programs with the Defense Information Systems Agency at Fort Meade, MD. During 2014 & 2015 he was the second Observatory Director for the NSF's National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). As a member of the Federal government's Senior Executive Service with the U.S. Geological Survey he was the Center Director for the Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center in Sioux Falls, SD.

Awards and honors

NASA Fellow
Harvard Kennedy School Fellow
NASA Certificate of Appreciation 2010
NASA Acquisition Improvement Award
NASA Group Achievement Award
Defense Superior Service Medal
Meritorious Service Medal (three)
Navy Commendation Medals
(two, one with "V")
Air Medals
(two, both with "V")
Strike Flight Air Medals (four)
Navy Achievement Medal
Naval Test Wing Atlantic Test Pilot of the Year 1995–1996
Who's Who in the World 1995
Who's Who in the American West 1994
Commodore's List with Distinction
US Naval Academy Distinguished Hispanic Graduate
US Naval Academy Notable Graduate

Organizations

National Rifle Association of America.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b "Christopher J. "Gus" Loria (Colonel, USMC, RET.) NASA ASTRONAUT (FORMER)" (PDF). NASA. February 2016. Retrieved April 12, 2021.

[NASA-Bio-1] "Christopher J. "Gus" Loria (Colonel, USMC, RET.) NASA ASTRONAUT (FORMER)" (PDF). NASA. February 2016. Retrieved April 12, 2021.

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