NASA Career
Stewart became a NASA astronaut in August 1979. His technical duties in the Astronaut Office included: testing and evaluation of the entry flight control systems for STS-1 (the first Space Shuttle orbital mission), ascent abort procedures development, and payload coordination. He also served as support crewman for STS-4, and Ascent/Orbit CAPCOM for STS-5. He served as a mission specialist on STS-41-B in 1984 and STS-51-J in 1985, and logged a total of 289 hours in space, including approximately 12 hours of EVA operations. He was the first active duty U.S. Army soldier to make a spaceflight.
In 1986, while in training for his scheduled third flight to be known as STS-61-K, Stewart was selected by the Army for promotion to Brigadier General. Upon accepting this promotion, Stewart was reassigned from NASA to be the Deputy Commanding General, U.S. Army Strategic Defense Command, in Huntsville, Alabama. In this capacity Stewart managed research efforts in developing ballistic missile defense technology. In 1989 he was reassigned as Director of Plans, United States Space Command, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
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