Story Musgrave built one of the most extraordinary résumés in spaceflight history: Marine aircraft mechanic and electrician, mathematician, computer programmer, physician, aerospace researcher, surgeon, pilot and NASA astronaut.
He began in the U.S. Marine Corps in the 1950s, working around military aircraft before building an academic record almost as remarkable as his later space career. NASA’s Astronaut Fact Book lists six earned degrees: mathematics and statistics from Syracuse, an MBA focused on operations analysis and computer programming from UCLA, chemistry from Marietta College, an M.D. from Columbia, physiology and biophysics from the University of Kentucky, and literature from the University of Houston.
Musgrave was selected as a NASA scientist-astronaut in 1967. Before he ever flew in space, he worked on Skylab and helped develop Space Shuttle spacewalking systems, including suits, life-support equipment and airlocks. He also continued clinical medicine and research while working at NASA.
His first spaceflight came aboard Challenger on STS-6 in 1983. Musgrave and Don Peterson performed the first spacewalk of the Space Shuttle era, testing the new suits and procedures he had helped develop.
A decade later, Musgrave became payload commander on STS-61, the first Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. He and Jeffrey Hoffman carried out three of the mission’s five spacewalks as the crew replaced instruments, electronics and other hardware that restored Hubble’s ability to produce sharp images.
By the time Musgrave retired from NASA in 1997, he had flown six missions and spent more than 1,281 hours in space. The National Aviation Hall of Fame notes another distinction that remains extraordinary: Musgrave is the only astronaut to have flown aboard all five Space Shuttle orbiters — Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavour and Columbia.
His résumé belongs in the same Career News category as Jonny Kim’s path from Navy SEAL to doctor to astronaut, Leland Melvin’s move from NFL draft pick to engineer to astronaut, and Eric Heiden’s journey from five Olympic gold medals to orthopedic surgery. Musgrave’s version stands out for the sheer number of disciplines he mastered at a professional level.
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