Robert Laurel Crippen (born September 11, 1937) is an American retired naval officer and aviator, test pilot, aerospace engineer, and astronaut. He traveled into space four times: as pilot of STS-1 in April 1981, the first Space Shuttle mission; and as commander of STS-7 in June 1983, STS-41-C in April 1984, and STS-41-G in October 1984. He was also a part of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL), Skylab Medical Experiment Altitude Test (SMEAT), ASTP support crew member, and the Approach and Landing Tests (ALT) for the Space Shuttle.
In 1986, Crippen participated in the recovery operations for the remains of crew members after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. He was also on the commission responsible for determining the cause of the accident.
After retiring as an astronaut, Crippen worked his way through management at NASA, namely as Director, Space Shuttle, at NASA Headquarters, then Director of the Kennedy Space Center. He also went to Lockheed Martin and Thiokol Propulsion before retiring to private life in Florida.
Crippen has received several awards and honors, including the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 2006, and having an elementary school named after him in Porter, Texas. He is also a fellow of several organizations, including the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP).
Early life and education
Robert Crippen was born in Beaumont, Texas, on September 11, 1937. After graduating from New Caney High School in New Caney, Texas in 1955, Crippen went to the University of Texas at Austin to major in Aerospace Engineering. In 1960, he graduated with his Bachelor of Science degree. He was selected as a member of the Texas Alpha chapter of Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Gamma Tau.
Crippen became interested in flying and computers at a very early age. He attended the first computer programming class held at the University of Texas. Throughout his career in the military and at NASA, he worked on computer programming, including programs such as the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, Skylab and the Space Shuttle.
Military career
Crippen was commissioned through the United States Navy's Aviation Officer Candidate School (AOCS) Program at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida.
Publicly, the MOL program was designed to determine the usefulness of man in space. Crews would be in orbit for about a month and they would be able to freely move about the laboratory. The secret and primary mission was to perform reconnaissance missions on Soviet Union and China. The pilots were not told of this true mission, though they were later informed.
When Crippen was selected for astronaut training in October 1966, he had to choose between the military and NASA, deciding to stay in the military to work on the MOL program. He felt that he would get lost at NASA due to the number of astronauts already in programs at the agency. There was an uncrewed flight on November 3, 1966. There were no crewed flights.