posted 09-13-2011 03:55 PM               

I too would be interested in reading more if anyone has any info.

posted 09-13-2011 05:54 PM               

Senior NASA scientist and former astronaut Karl G. Henize, Ph.D., has died during a climbing expedition on Mount Everest.

Henize, who was on leave from NASA at the time, was participating in the expedition conducted by a British research group called High Adventure BVI, under the auspices of the Loel Guiness Research Foundation. The Guiness Foundation was established to encourage the exchange of ideas between scientific groups and academics from different cultural backgrounds. NASA scientists and astronauts have recently been consulting with High Adventure regarding high altitude parachuting research.

NASA officials at the Johnson Space Center were notified of Dr. Henize's death, this morning, by High Adventure officials who recounted the sequence of events which led to his passing. After several days of acclimatization in Kathmandu, Nepal, and then at an expedition base camp in China, the team consisting of Henize, High Adventure's Harry Taylor and Nish Bruce, and paramedic Brian Tilley had begun their ascent to an advance camp on Monday, October 4, when Dr. Henize began to experience respiratory difficulty. When he did not respond to oxygen treatment, the team began to return to the base camp. Early in the morning of October 5th, Dr. Henize passed away in his sleep. In accordance with his prior request, he was buried on the mountain at the British base camp. A certificate of death was issued by the examining physician at the camp. The most likely cause of death was listed as "cerebral anoxia secondary to pulmonary edema".