Owen Kay Garriott (November 22, 1930 – April 15, 2019) was an American electrical engineer and NASA astronaut, who spent 60 days aboard the Skylab space station in 1973 during the Skylab 3 mission, and 10 days aboard Spacelab-1 on a Space Shuttle mission in 1983.
After serving in the United States Navy, Garriott was an engineering professor at Stanford University before attending the United States Air Force Pilot Training Program and later joining NASA. After his NASA career, he worked for various aerospace companies, consulted on NASA-related committees, taught as an adjunct professor, and conducted research on microbes found in extreme environments.
Early life
thumb|Owen Garriot (standing) worked at a local Enid Oklahoma radio station while in high school, with Robert Miles (seated). Both men went on to serve as electrical technicians in the US Navy, and both attended the University of Oklahoma.
Owen Kay Garriott was born in Enid, Oklahoma, on November 22, 1930, to Owen and Mary Catherine Garriott (). and graduated from Enid High School in 1948, where he served as senior class president and was voted "Most Likely To Succeed." He received a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 1953, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. He was also the elected president of the senior class. He later earned Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University in electrical engineering in 1957 and 1960, respectively.
Career
U.S. military
Garriott served as electronics officer in the United States Navy from 1953 to 1956. From 1961 through 1965, he was an assistant professor and associate professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University. He performed research and led graduate studies in ionospheric physics after obtaining his doctorate, and authored or co-authored more than 45 scientific papers, chapters and one book, principally in areas of the physical sciences.
As a prerequisite of the era's scientist-astronaut training, he completed a one-year United States Air Force pilot training program in 1966, receiving qualification as pilot in jet aircraft. His first spaceflight, the Skylab 3 mission in July–September 1973, set a record for duration of over 59 days, more than doubling the one of the spring's Skylab 2, just to be soon beaten by Skylab 4. Extensive experiments were conducted of the Sun, of Earth resources and in various life sciences relating to human adaptation to weightlessness.
Post-NASA career
After leaving NASA in June 1986, Garriott consulted for various aerospace companies and served as a member of several NASA and National Research Council Committees. Owen Garriott was in mission control at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the launch and was in attendance when his son returned 12 days later.
Garriott died on April 15, 2019, at his home in Huntsville, Alabama.
Organizations
Garriott was a member of the following organizations: American Astronautical Society (fellow), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (associate fellow), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,
thumb|right|Garriott using an [[amateur radio during STS-9 training in 1983]]
Awards and honors
Garriott received the following honors: National Science Foundation Fellowship, 1960–1961; Honorary Doctorate of Science, Phillips University (Enid, Okla.), 1973; NASA Distinguished Service Medal, 1973; Fédération Aéronautique Internationale V. M. Komarov Diploma for 1973; the Octave Chanute Award for 1975; and the NASA Space Flight Medal, 1983. Gerald Carr accepted the 1975 Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy from President Ford, awarded to the Skylab astronauts.
He was one of five Oklahoman astronauts inducted into the Oklahoma Aviation and Space Hall of Fame in 1980, the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1997, the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame in 2000, and the Enid Public Schools Hall of Fame in 2001.
A street named after him in Enid, Oklahoma, serves as one of the city's main thoroughfares. It is part of U.S. Route 412.
Books
Garriott was co-author, with fellow astronaut Joseph Kerwin and writer David Hitt, of Homesteading Space, a history of the Skylab program, published in 2008. He was co-author of Introduction to Ionospheric Physics with Henry Rishbeth. Garriott was also a contributor to the book NASA's Scientist-Astronauts by David Shayler and Colin Burgess. Garriott wrote the foreword to the book.
See also
- List of spaceflight records
- The Astronaut Monument
References
External links
- Spacefacts biography of Owen K. Garriott
- Garriott at Spaceacts
- Official publisher website for Homesteading Space
- Garriott at Encyclopedia of Science
- Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Garriott, Owen