Karol “Bo” Bobko, who was the one NASA astronaut to fly on the primary launch of two space shuttle orbiters, has died on the age of 85.
Bobko’s death on Thursday (Aug. 17) was confirmed by the Association of Space Explorers, knowledgeable organization for the world’s astronauts and cosmonauts. A distinguished member, Bobko previously served as president of the U.S. chapter of the association.
Bobko joined NASA in 1969 with the agency’s seventh group of astronauts. Unlike the classes that got here before and after his selection, though, Bobko and his six fellow Group 7 members were transplants from one other astronaut corps: the U.S. Air Force’s Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program.
When the MOL program was canceled in June 1969, NASA accepted the seven youngest members into its astronaut corps but didn’t have any immediate need for them.
“Perhaps the primary yr or so was slightly, at times, slightly frustrating,” said Bobko in a 2002 NASA oral history interview. “Throughout the first yr, we were told twice that we were fired.”
“After which that was rescinded,” Bobko said. “They said, ‘This system will not be going anyplace. We do not need you folks, and, so you are going to be let go and return to the Air Force.’ But that was rescinded, and we stayed and got involved within the programs that were occurring here.”
Still, it will be 14 years before Bobko flew to space for the primary time. On April 4, 1983, the space shuttle Challenger lifted off on its first mission, STS-6, with Bobko as its pilot.
“First flight of Challenger. First lightweight [external fuel] tank. Okay, we launched the large first satellite, the TDRS [Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-1],” said Bobko, listing what set STS-6 other than other missions. “It was also the primary flight of the HUD, the heads-up display, which I had on my side [of the flight deck].”
The mission also included the primary spacewalk (extravehicular activity, EVA), from the space shuttle.
“My responsibility was getting them [Story Musgrave and Don Peterson] into the suits, which will not be a small responsibility. I mean, you are putting them into their very own little spacesuit or spacecraft. You understand, it provides power and atmosphere and communications and meteoroid protection. It does every little thing. So it’s sort of like launching a small satellite, except it’s got a person in it,” Bobko said.
“But that went well. It was interesting to take photographs of them on the market within the payload bay. It looks different once you’re up in space and have any individual, certainly one of your mates, floating around back there,” he said.
Not every little thing went as well in the course of the five-day mission. The orbiter’s guidance computer went offline.
“It failed, but we were on orbit, and the shuttle is — the shuttle, unlike the station on orbit, could be very benign. It doesn’t take computers to maintain it running,” said Bobko. “So it failed, and we were capable of undergo the entire procedure and produce it back up, change it to principally one other position. If you fly the shuttle, you have got 4 computers and a fifth which is a backup, and people 4 computers have what are called strings, so each computer has various things which are hooked to it that it commands and a few of those strings are more essential to it than others, so we took this computer and put it on certainly one of the less essential strings.”
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Bobko’s launched on his second spaceflight as commander of space shuttle Discovery on April 12, 1985. His six STS-51D crewmates included the primary first sitting member of Congress to fly into space, Senator Jake Garn of Utah.
“Jake was an amazing person. He had more flying time than I did. He knew what it was to be a crew member,” said Bobko. “So, for a [payload] specialist, he was an amazing [payload] specialist. His only problem was that he got very sick on orbit.”
The nearly seven-day mission deployed two communication satellites, leading to the primary unplanned spacewalk in U.S. history.
“One among those satellites didn’t work, and so we had backed off 30 or 40 miles [48 or 64 kilometers] after which the bottom decided that we might return and attempt a rescue on it. And in order that was quite a bit different situation than we had anticipated,” Bobko said.
“We needed to send two guys [Jeffrey Hoffman and David Griggs] EVA, which was an unplanned EVA for that flight, but I had been the one who had sent Story and Don EVA earlier, so I did not have anybody else learn that skill since we did not have a scheduled EVA. So I used to be the one who sent the crew members EVA,” he said. “They strapped a thing that looked like a fly swatter on the top of the large [robotic] arm, which we hadn’t planned to make use of.”
The spacewalk was successful, however the “fly swatter” was not. The satellite was retrieved, repaired and redeployed by a later space shuttle mission.
Bobko’s third and final flight into space, STS-51J on Oct. 3, 1985, was the primary flight for space shuttle Atlantis. It was also the second mission devoted solely to deploying a U.S. Department of Defense payload.
Again assigned as commander, Bobko and his 4 crewmates spent 4 days in Earth orbit conducting activities that to this present day remain classified.
“What can I let you know in regards to the third mission? The third mission was pretty vanilla. I mean, we went on time and we landed in accordance with the schedule. The indisputable fact that it was classified was a pain, but you lived with that,” Bobko said.
“But, you realize, it was a great mission. It was the first flight of Atlantis, which was very clean, cleaner than Challenger was, even,” he said.
In total, Bobko logged 16 days, 2 hours and three minutes in space over the course of his three missions.
Karol Joseph “Bo” Bobko was born on Dec. 23, 1937 in Latest York City. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1959, as a member of the primary graduating class of the U.S. Air Force Academy and a Master of Science in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California in 1970.
From 1961 to 1965, Bobko flew F-100 and F-105 aircraft while assigned as a pilot with the 523d Tactical Fighter Squadron at Cannon Air Force Base in Latest Mexico and the 336th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Seymore Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina. He attended the Aerospace Research Pilots School at Edwards Air Force Base in California, where he was assigned as an astronaut to the MOL program in 1966.
After joining NASA but before being assigned to his first spaceflight, Bobko served in a lot of support roles.
After briefly working on studies for a future space station to be serviced by the space shuttle, Bobko joined SMEAT, or the Skylab Medical Experiment Altitude Test. For 56 days, Bobko, along with fellow astronauts Bob Crippen and Bill Thornton, simulated living and dealing aboard the Skylab orbital workshop while inside a hypobaric chamber.
“It was an extended time, nevertheless it was easy, and it appeared to pass slightly quickly,” Bobko said. “I’m unsure if at the top of [56] days if any individual had said, ‘Would you prefer to go for one more [56]?’ that I’d have volunteered, but, you realize, generally, I believe that the sensation that I had through most of it was that you simply’re working, you have got a job to do and there was even times you fearful if we would get all of it done within the time that we had available.”
After SMEAT, Bobko was assigned to the astronaut support crew for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), the primary joint mission between the USA and Russia, after which the support crew for the Approach and Landing Test program that was flown using the prototype space shuttle Enterprise.
His last project prior to getting his own spaceflight was to serve because the lead astronaut within the test and checkout group on the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation of the primary launch of the space shuttle program, STS-1, in 1981.
Bobko’s second spaceflight was originally going to be STS-41F, but as a result of delays launching Discovery on STS-41D, the flight was canceled. Bobko was reassigned to STS-51E, which was planned to deploy a TDRS satellite like STS-6 had done, but that mission was also cancelled as a result of problems with the payload. That ultimately led Bobko (and most of his earlier assigned crewmates) being assigned to STS-51D.
In 1988, Bobko retired from NASA and the Air Force (with the rank of colonel) to hitch Booz Allen & Hamilton Inc., in Houston, Texas, managing the firm’s efforts coping with human spaceflight. In 2000, he became vp for strategic programs at Spacehab, Inc., an organization that provided that stowage platforms and pressurized research modules that were flown within the payload bay of the shuttle.
In 2005, Bobko joined Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), where he served as program manager for NASA’s Ames Research Center’s Simulation Laboratories. He retired in 2014, although he continued to seek the advice of.
For his service to the U.S. space program, Bobko was honored with the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and NASA Space Flight Medal, amongst other awards. He was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2011 and the Cradle of Aviation Museum’s Long Island Air and Space Hall of Fame in 2018.
“You glance through the Astronaut Hall of Fame and there are a variety of individuals who have contributed an awful lot to the space program. It’s an honor to be doing that and it’s an honor to have people recognize that I even have been of some importance to the space program and I’m worthy of being a member of this,” Bobko said in a 2011 interview with collectSPACE.
Bobko was married to F. Dianne Welsh with whom he had two children, Michelle and Paul.