McBride, John Andrew

He was born on August 14, 1943 in the city ​​of Charleston in West Virginia , but considers Beckley of the same state to be his hometown. In 1960 he graduated from high school in Beckley. In 1960-1964 he studied at the University of West Virginia . In 1971 he graduated from the graduate school of the US Navy and received a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering ^[1] .

Service in the Navy began in 1965 with flight training at the Pensacola Air Force Base in Florida . He was sent to the 101st Fighter Squadron, based at Ocean Base in Virginia . He flew the plane F-4 Phantom II . Then he was assigned to the 41st Fighter Squadron, where he served as a combatant pilot and battalion commander for three years. Then he served in the 11th and 103rd Fighter Squadrons, during his service in which he took part in the hostilities in Southeast Asia and made 64 combat sorties. He graduated from the US Air Force Test Pilot School at the Edwards Air Force Base in California . Upon completion, it was sent to the 4th test squadron at the Navy Point Mugu airbase in California. He served as a maintenance officer and project leader for the Sidewinder air-to-air missile project. By 1979, the total flight time was about 8,000 hours, of which more than 4,700 hours by jet aircraft. He has the qualifications of a civil aviation pilot, a certificate for flying on multi-engined airplanes, gliders and instrument flights. He retired with the rank of colonel of the Navy in May 1989. ^[2]

January 16, 1978 enlisted in the NASA astronaut detachment during the 8th set . Passed a course of general space training (GST), and in August 1979 he was enrolled in the Astronaut Division as a shuttle pilot. He worked in the Laboratory of electronic equipment of the shuttle, was the operator of communication with the crew during the flights STS-5 , STS-6 , and STS-7 .

• First flight - STS-41G ^[3] , Shuttle Challenger . C 5 to 13 October 1984 as a pilot. The flight duration was 8 days 5 hours 25 minutes ^[4] .

He was appointed commander of the ship " Columbia " STS-61E, which was scheduled to launch in March 1986 with the astrophysical laboratory ASTRO-1. However, after the crash of the Challenger shuttle in January 1986, the flight under the STS-61E program was canceled. In 1988 he was appointed commander of the STS-35 with ASTRO-1, which was to be held in March 1990. However, on May 12, 1989, he left the astronaut corps and from NASA . The total duration of flights into space is 8 days 5 hours 25 minutes.

From September 1987 to March 1989, he worked as Assistant Administrator of NASA for Relations with the US Congress . After retiring, he was President and CEO of Flying Eagle Corporation. In February 1998, he headed the company Image Development Group Inc. in Charleston.

Awarded: Medal "For Excellent Service" (USA) , three times - Air Medal (USA) , Medal for National Defense Service (USA) , Medal "For Service in Vietnam" , Order "Legion of Honor" , Medal "For Space Flight" ( 1984) and many others.

Wife - Sharon Lynn White, they have four children. Hobbies: golf, flying, basketball, gardening, carpentry, numismatics , likes to cook.

• List of astronauts and astronauts (and candidates) .
• List of US astronauts - participants in orbital space flight .
• Chronology of manned space flight .

• Spacefacts biography of Jon A. McBride
• Jon A. McBride Oral History (English) . historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov. The appeal date is April 29, 2019.