NASA Chooses 2 Pasadenans for Astronaut Duty
If things go according to plan, John M. Grunsfeld and Andrew S. W. Thomas will be zipped into spacesuits three or four years from now, strapped into contour seats and hurtled into orbit around the Earth.
The prospect makes the two Pasadena scientists, who are in the latest class of 19 astronauts selected last week by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, immeasurably happy.
Each grew up watching grainy televised pictures of astronauts lumbering across the moon’s Sea of Tranquility or floating weightlessly in compact little space capsules. And each developed a notion early in childhood that someday he also could watch the Earth’s surface unfold beneath him from the perspective of a high-flying capsule.
“It’s something I’ve wanted for a very long time,” said Grunsfeld, 33, a Caltech physics researcher.
When NASA officials telephoned Thomas with the news of his appointment on Monday, they told him not to tell anyone for a day or so. “I was walking around all day with a big grin on my face,” said Thomas, 40, a Jet Propulsion Laboratory researcher. He studies the effects of micro-gravity. “People were asking me: ‘What’s wrong with you? Are you all right?’ ”
The two were chosen from 2,054 candidates, 87 of whom got as far as the final five-day physical and psychological examinations at the Johnson Space Center in Houston last December.
Grunsfeld grew up on the south side of Chicago, where he became enchanted with the science fiction novels of Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein. In those days, you could still see stars at night, even in Chicago, he says.
“The mystery and romance of space hit me very early,” he said.
He received a bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago. He arrived at Caltech in 1989 as a senior research fellow in physics. Grunsfeld specializes in gamma-ray and X-ray astrophysics--meaning, he says, that he studies “very hot, energetic objects,” such as pulsars and black holes.
He says his education and his career have been, in a sense, nothing but preparation for space travel.
“Since I was a young boy, I saw this as a realistic goal,” he said. “I have a sort of funny philosophy of life. If you really want something, just work very hard for it.”
The Australian-born Thomas felt much the same about his chances of reaching space. “It was something I became interested in when I was growing up in the early days of the Apollo and Gemini programs,” said Thomas, who became a U.S. citizen in 1986. “Call it a childhood ambition.”
Thomas trained as an engineer at the University of Adelaide in Australia, earning a doctorate in mechanical engineering in 1978. His first work in the United States was in the aerospace industry, getting a taste of centrifuge-induced weightlessness while working on experimental aircraft.
“It’s a wonderful sensation,” he said.
Weightlessness, in fact, is Thomas’ special passion. He supervises 22 JPL scientists in experiments on materials and liquid under near-zero-gravity conditions. He’s intrigued by the changes that occur in, say, a liquid that sits immovably in a cup when it’s earthbound but climbs over the rim when it’s shot into space.
Both men hike, bike and run in the mountains north of Pasadena, and both are in excellent physical condition. Grunsfeld, a pilot with 350 hours of flight time, owns a Grumman Tiger, a single-engine plane he keeps at the El Monte Airport.
He and his wife, Carol, a JPL internal auditor, often fly to Joshua Tree National Monument. “Out there, you see stars,” he said.
Thomas, who is single, is a veteran scuba diver.
Part of the rigorous physical and psychological examinations the two underwent at Johnson was a daunting test for claustrophobia. “They put you in a small sphere, about 35 inches in diameter, forcing you to crouch in a fetal position,” Thomas said. “Then they shut you in tight. It’s pitch-black and soundproof. They left me in about 10 minutes.”
Neither Thomas nor Grunsfeld worries about the possibility of space disaster. “I think what the Challenger accident did was to force us to take a very close look at the systems we use,” Thomas said. “It was a tragic price to pay, but we actually learned a great deal from it.”
The two will report to Houston in August to begin preparing for their first forays into space, which they figure will be in 1995 or 1996.
