Norman E. Thagard
The first American to board Mir, Thagard paved the way for the Shuttle-Mir program
When Thagard boarded the Mir space station alongside cosmosnauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennadi Strekalov, the culture of space exploration was changed forever. The mission demonstrated that space exploration and discovery was now well and truly a multinational enterprise.
Prior to the pioneering Mir 18 mission, Thagard only had one year of intense training under the Russian teaching system to prepare him for life on board Mir. Though Thagard was a seasoned Space Shuttle flyer, having flown on four previous Space Shuttle missions – as a mission specialist on STS-7, STS-51-B, and STS-30 and a payload commander on STS-42 – his stint aboard Mir be very different.
The training was intense, in Russian and on completely different systems. Thagard had to study the inner workings of both the Soyuz capsule and Mir, learning most of the experimental protocols as they were being developed. There was no room for error, and all exams needed to be passed before the department would allow Thagard to fly. Remarkably, Thagard and his fellow cosmonauts were only told they had passed all their exams and were permitted to fly just two weeks before the scheduled launch.
On the day of the launch Thagard was concerned about the weather, as he was used to launching from Florida in a subtropical climate. The Baikonur Cosmodrome makes for a very different experience, located on the desolate, windswept steppes of Kazakhstan. On launch day, a worried Thagard said to Strekalov, “Gennadi, we can’t launch today. It’s too cold,” to which Strekalov replied: “The colder the better.” Thagard then remarked: “Well all right, but it’s still too windy.” Strekalov replied: “As long as it’s not a hurricane.” Despite Thagard’s reservations, the launch was a success, and the trio were soon on their way to Mir. Coincidently, NASA’s STS67 was also in orbit at the time of the launch, bringing the total number of people in space at the same time to 13, a new world record.
Thagard spent 115 days on Mir, though much of his planned research was delayed due to the Spektr science module arriving several months late. Spektr supported research into biotechnology, life sciences, material science and space technologies, and also enabled enhanced monitoring of Earth’s natural resources and atmosphere. Regardless of setbacks, Thagard completed 28 experiments on Mir, and the crew returned to Earth aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis on 7 July 1995. The mission was a key component of the Shuttle-Mir program that was carried out between 1995 and 1998.
Born on 3 July 1943 in Marianna, Florida, Thagard demonstrated great ambition from a young age. At school he told his classmates that he wanted to be a medical doctor, a fighter pilot, an engineer and an astronaut. Incredibly, he actually went on to become all four.
Thagard received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from Florida State University. He then joined the US Marine Corps in 1966, achieving the rank of Captain and flying 163 combat missions while serving in Vietnam. After the Vietnam War, Thagard returned to Florida State University to focus on a PhD in engineering. Already halfway through his childhood career list, Thagard then enrolled at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, earning his MD in 1977. In his early 30s, Thagard was already a medical doctor, a fighter pilot and an engineer. It wasn’t long after that NASA selected him for astronaut training in
1978. After four Space Shuttle missions and a trip to Mir, Thagard left NASA and became a professor at Florida State University.