Story Musgrave's Headshot

Story Musgrave

Astronaut, Glider Pilot and Poet - Panelist Blurb

An astronaut, physician, glider pilot, poet and holder of six academic degrees, Story has had a lifelong love affair with the mystical and magical environment called "space." His mission is to "raise human consciousness" and to move people's minds and bodies which he does by enlightening and raising his audiences to a cosmic level. He shows people how to break through physical, emotional, and intellectual frontiers. A veteran of six space flights, Musgrave has spent a total of 1,281 hours 59 minutes and 22 seconds in space as a Scientist-Astronaut for NASA from 1967-1997. He performed three space walks on the STS-61 to service and repair the Hubble Space Telescope which he helped design. He flew the maiden voyage of the Space Shuttle Challenger, contributed to the design and development of the Skylab Program and equipment and, in 1996 at the age of 61, became the oldest living thing to orbit Earth. Story was the back-up science-pilot for the first Skylab mission, and was a CAPCOM for the second and third Skylab missions. He participated in the design and development of all Space Shuttle extravehicular activity equipment including space suits, life support systems, airlocks, and manned maneuvering units. During his career with NASA, he served as a test and verification pilot, a spacecraft communicator, lead CAPCOM, a mission specialist, and a payload commander.

Musgrave holds degrees in mathematics, business, administration, chemistry, medicine, physiology, biophysics and literature from such institutions as Syracuse University, UCLA, Marietta College, Columbia University, University of Kentucky and University of Houston. Most recently he earned a degree in the psychology of creativity and another in history - talk about lifelong learning!

NOTE: Bio is as it appeared in the Forum program from November 7, 2003.