Jon Andrew McBride, (Capt, USN, Ret.), is a retired American naval officer and aviator, fighter pilot, test pilot, aeronautical engineer, and a former NASA astronaut.

McBride’s naval service began in 1965 with flight training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. After being designated a Naval Aviator and receiving his wings in August 1966, he was assigned to Fighter Squadron 101 (VF-101) based at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia, for training in the F-4 Phantom II aircraft. He was subsequently assigned to Fighter Squadron 41 (VF-41) where he served 3 years as a fighter pilot and division officer. He has also served tours with VF-11 and VF-103. While deployed to Southeast Asia, McBride flew 64 combat missions.

He attended the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School (Class 75A) at Edwards Air Force Base, California, prior to reporting to Air Test and Development Squadron Four (VX-4) at Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California, where he served as maintenance officer and Sidewinder project officer. He has flown over 40 different types of military and civilian aircraft and piloted the Navy “Spirit of ’76” bicentennial-painted F-4J Phantom in various air shows during 1976, 1977, and 1978. He holds current Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ratings which include civilian commercial pilot certificate (multi-engine), instrument, and glider; and he previously served as a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI).

He has logged more than 8,800 hours flying time—including 4,700 hours in jet aircraft, and over 600 carrier landings.

Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in January 1978, McBride became an astronaut in August 1979. His NASA assignments have included lead chase pilot for the maiden voyage of Space Shuttle Columbia, software verification in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL), capsule communicator (CAPCOM) for STS-5, STS-6, and STS-7, Flight Data File (FDF) Manager, and orbital rendezvous procedures development.

The crew of the STS-41-G mission. McBride is 1st from left on the bottom
McBride was pilot of STS-41-G, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on October 5, 1984, aboard the Orbiter Challenger. This was the first crew of seven. During their eight-day mission, crew members deployed the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite, conducted scientific observations of the Earth with the OSTA-3 pallet and Large Format Camera, and demonstrated potential satellite refueling with an EVA and associated hydrazine transfer. Mission duration was 197 hours and concluded with a landing at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on October 13, 1984.

McBride was scheduled to fly next in March 1986, as the Commander of STS-61-E crew. This flight was one of several deferred by NASA in the wake of the Challenger accident in January 1986.

On July 30, 1987, McBride was assigned to NASA Headquarters to serve as Assistant Administrator for Congressional Relations, with responsibility for NASA’s relationship with the United States Congress, and for providing coordination and direction to all Headquarters and Field Center communications with Congressional support organizations. He held this post from September 1987 through March 1989. In 1988, McBride was named to command the crew of the STS-35 (ASTRO-1) mission, scheduled for launch in March 1990, but chose to retire from NASA instead.

On September 23, 2011, the NASA Independent Verification and Validation Facility (IV&V) in Fairmont, West Virginia dedicated a NASA software laboratory to the West Virginia native Jon McBride. The laboratory’s official name is the Jon McBride Software Testing and Research Laboratory, or JSTAR. JSTAR is NASA IV&V’s environment for adaptable testing and simulation, designed to enhance tools and methods used to critically assess mission and safety critical software across NASA’s missions. The lab supports end to end testing on mission flight software through the application of analytical rigor to reduce the threat of software-related mission failure.

Franklin Story Musgrave is a man of great accomplishment, the winner of countless awards, including the Phi Delta Theta Distinguished Alumnus Award presented in 1994, and the recipient of many other honors. He is a doctor, a retired astronaut, a public speaker and consultant to both The Walt Disney Company Imagineering Group and Applied Minds in California. Throughout his career, Musgrave has launched into many things: his education, unique hobbies, new careers, and most notably, outer space.

Musgrave entered the United States Marine Corps in 1953 where he flew over 18,000 hours in 160 different types of civilian and military aircraft, including 7,500 hours in jet aircraft. Also an accomplished parachutist, he has made more than 500 free falls – including over 100 experimental free-fall descents involved with the study of human aerodynamics.

In August 1967, he was selected as a scientist-astronaut by NASA and flew on the maiden voyage of Space Shuttle Challenger, which launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on April 4, 1983. He retired from NASA in 1997, after completing 6 Shuttle missions which makes him the only astronaut to have flown missions on all five Space Shuttles and has him recording 1,281 hours 59 minutes, 22 seconds in space.

Oswald Ryan was an original member of the Civil Aeronautics Board when it was created in 1938 and its chairman for one year in 1953. Mr. Ryan served on the board, originally called the Civil Aeronautics Authority, under Presidents Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower.

He was a prominent figure in civil aviation for more than 20 years. On the 15th anniversary of the board, created under the Civil Aeronautics Act of August 1938, Mr. Ryan was the only member of the original board still serving.

Joel Stebbins was an American astronomer who pioneered photoelectric photometry in astronomy. He graduated from the University of Nebraska with a Bachelor’s degree in astronomy in 1899. He then went on to acquire his PhD from the Lick Observatory where he worked.

He became an instructor of astronomy at the University of Illinois and director of the University of Illinois Observatory from 1903 to 1922. During this time he performed innovative work with the selenium cell and received the Draper Medal of the National Academy, the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1950, and among other honors.

In 1922 he became director of the Washburn Observatory at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he remained until 1948. Stebbins developed photoelectric photometry to the point where it succeeded photography as the photometric standard. After 1948, Stebbins actively continued his research at Lick Observatory until his final retirement in 1958.

Brother Thurlow was a pioneer in early flight attempts. He is most known for his around-the-world flight with Howard Hughes, in which he served as co-pilot and navigator. Thurlow would pass away in 1944 due to a plane accident.

Eugene Luther “Gene” Vidal was an American commercial aviation pioneer, New Deal official and athlete. He competed in the 1920 Olympic games in the 100 meter dash. He worked closely with Amelia Earnhart in a number of aviation-related enterprises.

Edward Curtis Wells was senior vice president and served on the board of directors of Boeing Company. He helped to design the Boeing 747 and the B-17 Flying Fortress. He was known as the “elder statesman of aviation.”

Wells joined Boeing Company’s engineering staff in 1931 and was named Boeing’s chief engineer in 1943. He received the following honors: the Daniel Guggenheim Medal (1980), the Fawcett Aviation Award (1944), and the Lawrence Sperry Award from the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences (1942). Ed Wells was a member of the Willamette University Board of Trustees from 1955 until his death in 1986.