NASA Career
In February 1979, Ross was assigned to the Payload Operations Division at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center as a payload officer/flight controller, responsible for the flight operations integration of payloads into the Space Shuttle. Ross was selected as an astronaut in May 1980. His technical assignments since then have included: EVA, or "space walks", RMS (Remote Manipulator System, or "robotic arm"), and chase team; support crewman for STS 41-B, STS 41-C and STS 51-A; spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM) during STS 41-B, STS 41-C, STS 41-D, STS 51-A and STS 51-D; Chief of the Mission Support Branch; member of the 1990 Astronaut Selection Board; Acting Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office, Chief of the Astronaut Office EVA and Robotics Branch, and Astronaut Office Branch Chief for Kennedy Space Center Operations Support. Ross was assigned to STS-62-A, the first Shuttle mission to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, but the mission was canceled after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
Ross flew as a mission specialist on STS 61-B (1985), STS-27 (1988) and STS-37 (1991), was the Payload Commander on STS-55/Spacelab-D2 (1993), and again served as a mission specialist on the second Space Shuttle to rendezvous and dock with the Russian Space Station Mir, STS-74 (1995), the first International Space Station assembly mission, STS-88 (1998) and STS-110 (2002). A veteran of seven space flights, Ross has over 1,393 hours in space, including 58 hours and 18 minutes on nine EVAs.
Among personal milestones, he became the first human to be launched into space seven times, and had held United States records for spacewalks (nine) and spacewalking time (58 hours and 18 minutes) until he was surpassed by the current record holder, ISS Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria (ten EVA's totaling 67 hours and 40 minutes). Speculation also exists that Ross performed an additional EVA on the classified STS-27 mission in support of the Lacrosse 1 deployment.
Ross served as Chief of the Vehicle Integration Test Office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas until he retired in January 2012.
Ross retired from NASA on January 28, 2012 after being the first person in history to launch into space 7 times. He also leaves NASA after placing third in the most spacewalks after completing 9 EVA's.
Read more about this topic: Jerry L. Ross
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