Robert Cabana
Robert D. Cabana served as pilot on STS-41 and STS-53 Discovery and as mission commander on STS-65 Columbia and STS-88 Endeavor, the first International Space Station assembly mission.
He was born January 23, 1949, in Minneapolis, Minnesota and received a bachelor's degree in Mathematics from the United States Naval Academy in 1971. After graduation from the Naval Academy, Cabana completed naval flight officer training in Pensacola, Florida, in 1972. He served as an A-6 bombardier/navigator with Marine Air Wings in Cherry Point, North Carolina. Upon graduation from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in 1981, he served at the Naval Air Test Center as the A-6 program manager, X-29 advanced technology demonstrator project officer, and as a test pilot for flight systems and ordnance separation testing on A-6 and A-4 series aircraft. He also served as the Assistant Operations Officer of Marine Aircraft Group Twelve in Iwakuni, Japan. Cabana retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in August 2000. Selected by NASA in June 1985, Cabana completed initial astronaut training in July 1986, qualifying for assignment as a pilot on future Space Shuttle flight crews.
The five-man crew of STS-41 Discovery successfully deployed the Ulysses spacecraft, operated the Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet instrument to map atmospheric ozone levels, and activated the Solid Surface Combustion Experiment.
The crew of STS-53 Discovery deployed a classified payload for the Department of Defense and performed several Military-Man-in-Space and NASA experiments. During the record setting 15-day flight of STS-65 Columbia, the crew conducted the second International Microgravity Laboratory mission. The flight consisted of 82 experiments from 15 countries and six space agencies from around the world. STS-88 Endeavour was the first International Space Station (ISS) assembly mission in which the U.S. built node, Unity, was mated with Zarya, the Russian built Functional Cargo Block. The crew also performed the initial activation and first ingress of the International Space Station, performed IMAX Cargo Bay Camera operations, and deployed two satellites. Since STS-88, Cabana has served as Manager for International Operations of the ISS program, Director of Human Space Flight Programs Russia, Deputy Director of Johnson Space Center, Director of the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, and currently serves as the Director of the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
Robert Cabana was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on May 3, 2008.