Posts: 946 From: Washington, IL Registered: Jan 2006
posted 10-26-2009 09:29 PM
During the missing man formation flyover at the STS-51L and STS-107 memorial services at JSC were any NASA astronauts the pilots of the T-38s during the flyover?
ASCAN1984 Member
Posts: 1049 From: County Down, Nothern Ireland Registered: Feb 2002
posted 10-30-2009 02:48 PM
Now that's good one. I think Mike Mullane said in his book he was in the back of one of them for the STS-51L.
Michael Cassutt Member
Posts: 358 From: Studio City CA USA Registered: Mar 2005
posted 10-30-2009 05:30 PM
quote:Originally posted by astro-nut: During the missing man formation flyover at the STS-51L and STS-107 memorial services at JSC were any NASA astronauts the pilots of the T-38s during the flyover?
Yes, and yes. I don't have the names for the Challenger memorial, but for Columbia in 2003 it was:
February 4 at JSC:
AC #1 Paul Lockhart with Terry Pappas (aircraft ops) AC #2 Mike Lopez-Alegria with Roberto Vittori AC #3 Lee Archambault with Tim Kopra AC #4 Rick Sturckow with Al Drew
February 6 at KSC:
AC #1 Archambault with Pappas AC #2 Doug Hurley with Pat Forrester AC #3 Alan Poindexter with Joan Higginbotham AC #4 George Zamka with Steve Robinson
buckeyecal Member
Posts: 90 From: soon to be Boise, ID USA Registered: Feb 2006
posted 10-30-2009 05:45 PM
I remember a Missing man formation flyover they did for 51L during the pregame for Super Bowl XXX in '96. The date of the game that year was Jan. 28th - the 10th anniversary. The cool thing was that Rich Scobee, Dick's son led the way and pulled straight up to leave the formation. I saw a highlight clip later on where they showed June's reaction from the stands - VERY powerful moment...
ColinBurgess Member
Posts: 2031 From: Sydney, Australia Registered: Sep 2003
posted 10-30-2009 08:45 PM
I seem to recall reading somewhere that Sonny Carter flew a T-38 at the time of the Challenger memorial.