In the age of 86, Richard “Dick” Truly, one of the first astronauts to ride on the space shuttle and later served as NASA’s administrator, passed away in his Genesee, Colorado, home on Wednesday, February 27, 2024.
Who Is Richard Truly
His critical contributions on the STS-2 and STS-8 missions, as well as the Space Shuttle Approach and Landing Tests, will undoubtedly be remembered for a very long time. A Collier Trophy was awarded to him for his contribution to getting the Shuttle back in the air following the Challenger disaster, and in 1989 he became the first astronaut to hold the position of NASA Administrator.
Prior to the program’s demise, Truly was first chosen by the US Air Force to be a member of the crewed Orbiting Laboratory. This helped him land a job with NASA in 1969. He conducted approach and landing trials on the Enterprise prototype space shuttle before taking off as the commander of STS-8 in 1983 and the pilot of STS-2 in 1981.
Genuinely spearheaded the endeavor to bring the space shuttle back into operation following the Challenger accident, and served as NASA’s ninth administrator from 1989 to 1992.
Being the first piloted spacecraft to be reflown in orbit, his first space trip was aboard orbit Shuttle Columbia (STS-2). As commander of Space Shuttle Challenger, he conducted the first-ever night launch and landing in the history of the Shuttle program on his second trip (STS-8).
When Naval Space Command was officially founded on October 1, 1983, in Dahlgren, Virginia, the former Shuttle astronaut served as its commander.
On February 20, 1986, Vice Admiral Richard H. Truly rejoined NASA to take on the role of Associate Administrator for Space Flight. He oversaw the laborious reconstruction of the Space Shuttle program in this capacity. NASA’s much-heralded “return to flight” was brought to light on September 29, 1988, when Discovery launched on the first Shuttle mission in nearly three years from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
He was the seventh Administrator of NASA from February 1989 until February 1992. He will be sorely missed.
Keep his family and friends in your thoughts and prayers during this hard time and make sure to check back on this site (isinfo24) for more details.
