Jon Andrew McBride (August 14, 1943 – August 7, 2024) was an American naval officer, test pilot, astronaut and administrator for NASA.

Throughout his career with the United States Navy, McBride served as an aviator, a fighter pilot, a test pilot, and an aeronautical engineer. He had achieved the rank of captain when he retired in 1989.

McBride was an astronaut with NASA, a role in which he piloted STS-41-G, and would have been commander of STS-61-E had the mission not been canceled as the next scheduled launch in the wake of the Challenger disaster.

Early life, education and personal life

Jon McBride was born on August 14, 1943—the youngest of five siblings—in Charleston, West Virginia. When he was still a young child, his family moved to Beckley, West Virginia, which he considered to be his hometown. In 1960, he graduated from Beckley's Woodrow Wilson High School, then attended West Virginia University from 1960–1964 and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1971. He did graduate work in Human Resource Management at Pepperdine University. At West Virginia University, McBride became a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Melissa L. (1966), and Jon A. (1970). After their divorce in 1986, he married the former Sharon Lynn White in 1988, which also ended in divorce in 2019. the first astronaut from West Virginia. 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. The mission duration was 197 hours and concluded with a landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on October 13, 1984.

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

thumb|left|McBride (sitting in the middle), as commander of never flown STS-61-E spaceflight

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.

Political career

In 1996, he unsuccessfully vied for the Republican nomination for Governor of West Virginia, losing to Cecil H. Underwood.

<!-- In subsequent years, he left West Virginia to pursue business opportunities in Arizona. -->

Kennedy Space Center and retirement

By 2008, McBride was retired and living near Cocoa, Florida. According to a short interview on September 20, 2017, during a "Meet an Astronaut" event, he was also actively working on improving the Space Shuttle Experience ride. He had proposed to assist in the development of a landing sequence for the ride. McBride remained active supporting the "Lunch with an Astronaut" program at Kennedy Space Center until 2020 when he announced his retirement from duty at the visitors complex.

On September 23, 2011, the NASA Independent Verification and Validation Facility (IV&V) in Fairmont, West Virginia, dedicated a NASA software laboratory to McBride, a West Virginia native. 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.

Organizations

  • Association of Naval Aviation

See also

  • List of spaceflight records

References

  • Astronautix biography of Jon McBride
  • Spacefacts biography of Jon McBride
  • McBride at Spaceacts ()