Kenneth D. Cameron

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Kenneth Cameron
NASA astronaut
RankColonel, USMC
Time in space
23d 10h 11m
SelectionNASA Group 10 (1984)
MissionsSTS-37
STS-56
STS-74
Mission insignia
RetirementDecember 2008

Kenneth Donald Cameron (born November 29, 1949), (

.

Background

Cameron was born November 29, 1949, in

reading, shooting, motorcycle riding, and amateur radio.[1]

He was a

Star Scout.[2] At MIT, Cameron was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.[3]

Military and flight experience

Cameron was commissioned in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1970 at

A-4M Skyhawks
.

In 1976, Cameron was reassigned to the

Naval Air Test Center
.

He has logged over 4,000 hours flying time in 48 different types of aircraft.

NASA career

Selected by NASA in May 1984, Cameron became an astronaut in June 1985. His technical assignments have included work on

L-39
aircraft.

He was absent from NASA between 1996 and 2003. However, following the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia and her crew, Cameron returned to the space program in October 2003, taking a founding position as a Principal Engineer in the NASA Engineering & Safety Center, based at the NASA Langley Research Center, in Hampton, Virginia. In June 2005, Cameron was selected as Deputy Director for Safety of the NESC, and in June 2007 he was relocated to the NESC office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

A veteran of three space flights, Cameron has logged over 561 hours in space. He served as pilot on STS-37 (April 5–11, 1991), and was the spacecraft commander on STS-56 (April 9–17, 1993) and STS-74 (November 12–20, 1995).

Spaceflight experience

Cameron flew his first mission as pilot on

atmospheric and solar studies in order to better understand the effect of solar activity on the Earth's climate and environment, and deployed and retrieved the autonomous observatory Spartan. STS-56 launched on April 8, 1993, and landed at Kennedy Space Center on April 17, 1993. On his third mission, Cameron commanded Atlantis on STS-74, NASA's second Space Shuttle mission to rendezvous and dock with the Russian space station Mir
, and the first mission to use the Shuttle to assemble a module and attach it to a space station. STS-74 launched on November 12, 1995, and landed at Kennedy Space Center on November 20, 1995.

Post-NASA career

Cameron in 2008

Following his first NASA retirement on August 5, 1996, he joined Hughes Training, Inc., a subsidiary of

Fuel Cell
Vehicle Development.

Cameron retired from NASA for good in December 2008 to join

Houston, Texas
.

Awards and honors

References

  1. ^ a b Spacefacts Biography of Kenneth Cameron. Spacefacts. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
  2. ^ "Kenneth D. Cameron at scouting.org" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 22, 2011. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
  3. ^ "The Back Bay Beta: Beta Honors Astronaut Brother" (PDF). Beta-MIT.org. 1991.

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from Astronaut Bio: K. Cameron.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
.

External links