Aliens On Earth.com Resources for those who are stranded here UFOs | Paranormal | Area 51 People | Places | Random Top 100 | What's New Catalog | New Books Search... for keyword(s)   in Page Titles in Book Title/Author in Contents of Pages ---other searches--- Metacrawler Yahoo FAST Search Google Altavista Dogpile Inference Find Northern Light IWon.com MSN Search Las Vegas Sun Our Bookstore is OPEN Mothership -> UFO -> Updates -> 1997 -> Feb -> Here

From: UFO UpDates - Toronto <updates@globalserve.net>
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 11:07:31 -0500
Fwd Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 11:07:31 -0500
Subject: Musgrave Quits NASA

ebk
___________________________________________________


Veteran U.S. astronaut Musgrave quits NASA, 2/10/97

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla (Reuter) - Veteran astronaut Story Musgrave,
a six-time space flier who helped mastermind the first Hubble
Space Telescope repair, said Monday he was leaving NASA after
being told he would never fly in space again.

NASA officials told the astronaut a year ago that a November
1996 space shuttle mission would be his last. The space agency
told the 61-year-old astronaut last week the decision was final.

"They told me I will not fly again, so I am leaving NASA,"
Musgrave said in an interview with Reuters. "It was not my
decision. It was not a decision I could make."

His departure from NASA later this year would end a
three-decade career with the space agency. Musgrave said
although he would have jumped at the chance of flying in space
again, he was not unhappy with the decision.

"I'm upbeat about it. I accept it," he said. "I've had
one heck of a time of it. I've been able to do this for 30
years."

David Leestma, director of flight crew operations at NASA's
Johnson Space Center, said it was time for Musgrave to make way
for younger astronauts who need to gain experience for work on
the planned international space station.

"I've got 50-plus people in the astronaut office right now
who have never flown on the space shuttle," he said. "I've got
to get them flight experience."

Musgrave turned down the offer of a desk job helping to
train new shuttle crews, saying he wanted to pursue new
projects.

"They wanted me to stay and work, but I'm a flier," he
said. "I know my calling in space is not complete. It's going
to move into a different realm."

Musgrave, who has appeared on NBC's "Tonight Show" and was
the subject of a David Letterman "Top 10" list, said he was
considering offers to host television programs on science, and
wanted to find ways of communicating the romance of space flight
to the public.

"There's five lifetimes of work out there that people want
me to do with them," he said. "Space needs to get turned into
art, it needs to be communicated, it needs to be expressed."

Musgrave joined NASA in 1967 during the Apollo program, but
had to wait until 1983 for his first space mission aboard the
shuttle. He later flew on a shuttle flight dedicated to
astronomy and two missions for the Department of Defense.

In 1993, Musgrave led a team of spacewalking astronauts who
fixed the Hubble Space Telescope's blurred vision.

He made his sixth and last shuttle mission in November last
year. The nearly 18-day flight, the longest for the shuttle,
earned him an entry in the record books as the oldest person to
fly in space and he equaled the record for the most space
flights by an individual.

The self-confessed eccentric, instantly recognizable by his
shinny bald head, has often talked about his belief in the
existence of extra-terrestrials. He has tried to communicate
with them during his missions through the power of thought, but
so far has reported no success.

"Story doesn't necessarily fit the mold when most people
think of the steely-eyed original seven astronauts," said
Leestma. "He brings a free spirit philosophy to the whole
thing."