Don Lind

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Don Lind
USNR
Time in space
7d 0h 8m
SelectionNASA Group 5 (1966)
MissionsSTS-51-B
Mission insignia
RetirementApril 1986
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
ThesisDifferential Distribution of Charge-Exchange and Inelastic Neutrons in Π-p Interactions at 313 and 371 MeV (1964)

Don Leslie Lind

aviator, and NASA astronaut. He graduated from the University of Utah with an undergraduate degree in physics in 1953. Following his military service obligation, he earned a PhD in high-energy nuclear physics from the University of California, Berkeley
in 1964.

Lind was a

Astronaut Group 5 in 1966, he helped to develop the Apollo 11 EVA activities, and served as CAPCOM for the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 missions. Lind was then assigned as backup pilot for Skylab 3 and Skylab 4 and would have flown on Skylab Rescue
.

Lind was the payload commander on his only flight, STS-51-B, launched April 29, 1985. He designed an experiment to capture the Earth's aurora. The payload experiments consisted primarily of microgravity research and atmospheric measurement. The Orbiter Challenger completed 110 orbits before landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

Biography

Early life and education

Lind was born May 18, 1930, and raised in

Eagle Scout with the Boy Scouts of America, its highest rank.[2] He received a Bachelor of Science degree with high honors in physics from the University of Utah in 1953.[1]

As a

Lawrence Radiation Laboratory and earned a PhD in high-energy nuclear physics in 1964.[1] During a leave of absence from NASA, he conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Geophysical Institute from 1975 to 1976.[5]

Navy service

Lind enrolled at the

United States Naval Reserve after completing his service obligation before resigning at the rank of commander in 1969.[7]

NASA career

Pre-astronaut and selection

Lind with Vance D. Brand (left) as a Skylab rescue crew

From 1964 to 1966, Lind worked at the NASA

Original Nineteen", selected in April 1966.[4][9]

Lind was selected as a pilot with other "Original Nineteen" astronauts

Al Shepard and other NASA managers emphasized; among other factors, this would delay their progression in the flight rotation.[5][10]

Apollo

Along with geologist-astronaut

capsule communicator on the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 missions. Schmitt, Lind and Owen Garriott were the only scientist-astronauts to receive advanced helicopter training, a key prerequisite for piloting the Apollo Lunar Module.[12] Due to standard crew rotations, it is believed that Lind would have followed Schmitt as the second scientist-astronaut Lunar Module Pilot on one of the canceled Apollo missions or projected long-range Apollo Applications Program lunar survey missions.[8][13]

Skylab

Amid the gradual cancellation of the later Apollo missions and the devolution of the AAP into the

[Apollo] 20, I could see I just wasn't going to have a flight for him".[14] Together, Lind and Group 6 scientist-astronaut William B. Lenoir comprised the Earth Resources Group of the Skylab Branch Office.[7]

Lind served as backup pilot alongside backup commander

Skylab 5 mission (scrapped in favor of the more economical extension of Skylab 4 from 56 to 84 days); and may have flown as a pilot or science pilot on Skylab B.[5][15]

Astronauts knew little of why or how they were assigned to missions.[16][17] By the Skylab era, Lind was informally perceived as a "scientist-pilot" because of his doctorate.[18] According to David Shayler, Lind "could never understand why he was not on the [Skylab 4] crew as science pilot" due to his work on the mission's Earth resources package; this could be attributed in part to seniority and specialization, as all of the prime crew science pilots were drawn from Group 4. Additionally, Skylab 4 Science Pilot Edward Gibson (like Lind, an atmospheric physicist) had taken on a research program in solar physics and worked on the Apollo Telescope Mount while Lind was still on track to be assigned to a lunar mission.[8] Although he cross-trained with Lenoir and briefly proposed swapping positions with his crewmate, Lind elected to retain his original assignment due to the greater likelihood of the rescue mission (which could only accommodate the commander and pilot) amid the space program's dwindling flight opportunities.[15]

According to Michael Cassutt, in 1970, Lind "openly complained" to George Abbey (then technical assistant to Johnson Space Center director Robert R. Gilruth) about the perceived administrative machinations of Slayton and Shepard and Harrison Schmitt's assignment to Apollo 17.[19] However, Abbey—a close friend of Schmitt who would eventually oversee Astronaut Corps assignments as director of flight operations from 1976 to 1988—took umbrage at Lind's cooperation with a 1969 report in The Washington Post that exposed rampant dissatisfaction among the scientist-astronauts. He also alleged that Lind complained about "any and all subjects" related to the space program, associating him with a coterie of scientist-astronauts (including Story Musgrave) who perceived Abbey as a "faceless 'horse-holder' who had worked his way into a powerful job." Although Abbey could not forestall Lind's eventual flight, their acrimonious relationship played a key role in hindering the astronaut's progression in the flight rotation.[19]

When the

Chris Kraft implicitly characterized Lind as one of NASA's nine active scientist-astronauts in the context of the payload specialist program.[21]

Shuttle era

The crew of the STS-51-B mission. Lind is at the far left

For the

payloads for the early Space Shuttle Orbital Flight Test (OFT) missions and the Canadarm.[5]

Lind finally flew as the lead mission specialist and de facto payload commander on STS-51-B (April 29 to May 6, 1985), logging over 168 hours in space. Due to Apollo-era managerial preferences, his contentious relationship with George Abbey, NASA budgetary problems and delays in the Space Shuttle program, Lind waited longer than any other continuously serving American astronaut for a spaceflight: 19 years.[4][5][22] STS-51-B's average age of 48.6 was the oldest for an American space mission.[16]

Spacelab-3 science mission, launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on April 29, 1985. Following several delays, this was the first fully operational Spacelab mission. A space program aficionado has speculated that Lind's science-dominant assignment was a "reward... for sticking around so long," in contrast to the majority of early STS missions that were centered around routinized satellite deployments.[23] The seven-man crew investigated crystal growth, drop dynamics leading to containerless material processing, atmospheric trace gas spectroscopy, solar and planetary atmospheric simulation, cosmic rays, laboratory animals and human medical monitoring.[1]

With the help of his Alaska postdoctoral group, Lind developed and conducted an experiment to photograph the Earth's aurora. As the experiment used a camera already on the Shuttle, NASA only needed to purchase three rolls of film for $36; Lind described it as "the cheapest experiment that has ever gone into space."[5] After completing 110 orbits of the Earth, the Orbiter Challenger landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on May 6, 1985.[1]

Lind retired from NASA on the twentieth anniversary of his selection in 1986. For nine years thereafter, he served as a professor of physics and astronomy at Utah State University, until his retirement in 1995.[4]

Awards and honors

Lind was a member of the

Eagle Scout.[24] He was also awarded the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 1974, and the NASA Space Flight Medal following his Challenger flight.[1]

Personal life

Lind married Kathleen Maughan[4] of Logan, Utah, with whom he had seven children.[1] STS-51-B was two decades after son David's stomach aches from fear of appearing on television like the families of other astronauts, such as neighbors James Irwin and Edgar Mitchell. Kathleen said before the mission that "For our family, I think we're better off now without the publicity" as space travel became more common.[16]

Lind served as a member of the lay ecclesiastical hierarchy of

missionary in the Northeastern United States before graduating from college (1950–52),[4][5] and after STS-51-B spoke in General Conference about his experience.[25] He and his wife Kathleen served as public affairs missionaries in the Europe West Area of the Church, as temple missionaries in the Nauvoo Illinois Temple, and, respectively, as a counselor and an assistant matron in the presidency of the Portland Oregon Temple.[26]

Lind's wife Kathleen died on June 12, 2022.[27] Lind died on August 30, 2022, in Logan, Utah, with many of his children and grandchildren at his bedside. His funeral was planned for September 10 in Smithfield.[28]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Astronaut Bio: Don Lind" (PDF). NASA. January 1987. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 18, 2021. Retrieved April 4, 2021.
  2. ^ "Astronauts and the BSA" (PDF). Boy Scouts of America. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 22, 2011. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  3. ^ a b c "Honor Roll Archived 2011-06-29 at the Wayback Machine" U-News & Views, University of Utah Alumni Association, August 2009.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Moulton, Kristen. "Utah astronaut recalls his role in moon walk Archived 2009-08-21 at the Wayback Machine" Salt Lake Tribune, July 20, 2009.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Don L. Lind oral history transcript" (Interview). Interviewed by Wright, Rebecca. NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project. May 27, 2005. Archived from the original on February 1, 2015. Retrieved January 31, 2015.
  6. ^ Leavitt, Melvin (April 1985). "Mission Specialist One". New Era. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. p. 28. Retrieved March 30, 2011.
  7. ^ .
  8. ^ from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  9. ^ Thompson, Ronald (April 5, 1966). "19 New Spacemen Are Named". The High Point Enterprise. High Point, North Carolina. p. 2A – via Newspapers.com.
  10. from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  11. from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  12. from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  13. ^ "Lind". Astronautix. Archived from the original on October 22, 2016. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
  14. . Retrieved December 11, 2017.
  15. ^ from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  16. ^ a b c Kennedy, J. Michael (April 29, 1985). "Shuttle Flight Is Lind's First Mission : Astronaut's 19-Year Wait for Space Trip Ends Today". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
  17. ^ Freeze, Di (April 1, 2007). "Bill Anders: A Love of Afterburners". Airport Journals. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
  18. . Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  19. ^ .
  20. ^ "Astronaut makes it to space". The Courier. UPI. April 30, 1985. pp. 6B. Retrieved November 6, 2013.
  21. .
  22. ^ Barbara Morgan was selected as the backup candidate for NASA's Teacher in Space Project in July 1985 and briefly assumed Christa McAuliffe's duties in the aftermath of the Challenger disaster before electing to return to teaching in the fall of 1986. She was then selected as a NASA Astronaut Group 17 Mission Specialist in 1998 and ultimately flew on STS-118 in August 2007. Although twenty-two years elapsed between her initial affiliation with NASA and her spaceflight, she was not continuously employed by the agency.
  23. ^ "Why Bruce McCandless waited so long to fly – collectSPACE: Messages".
  24. ^ Don L. Lind at scouting.org Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  25. ^ Lind, Don (October 1985). "The Heavens Declare the Glory of God". October 1985 General Conference. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved March 30, 2011.
  26. ^ "Mormon Scholars Testify / Don L. Lind". FairMormon. January 2010. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
  27. ^ "Don Lind, shuttle astronaut whose moon mission was canceled, dies at 92". collectSPACE.com. September 2, 2022. Retrieved September 4, 2022.
  28. ^ Stefanich, Logan (September 3, 2022). "Decorated Utah astronaut Don Lind dies at 92". Deseret News. Retrieved September 4, 2022.

External links