Steven Hawley

Steven Alan Hawley (born December 12, 1951) is a former NASA astronaut who flew on five U.S. Space Shuttle flights.

He is professor of physics and astronomy and director of engineering physics at the University of Kansas.

Hawley was born December 12, 1951, in Ottawa, Kansas, to Dr. and Mrs. Bernard Hawley.

Hawley graduated from Salina High School Central, Salina, Kansas, in 1969; he regards Salina as his home town.

He spent three summers employed as a research assistant: 1972 at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., and 1973 and 1974 at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia.

Hawley attended the University of Kansas, graduating with highest distinction in 1973 with Bachelor of Science degrees in Physics and in Astronomy.

He attended graduate school at Lick Observatory, University of California, Santa Cruz, principal advisor was William L. Burke graduating in 1977 with a Doctorate in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Hawley's research involved spectrophotometry of gaseous nebulae and emission-line galaxies, with particular emphasis on chemical abundance determinations for these objects.

The results of his research have been published in major astronomical journals.

Prior to his selection by NASA in 1978, Hawley was a post-doctoral research associate at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in La Serena, Chile.

He is a Professor (Emeritus) of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Kansas.

Hawley logged a total of 770 hours and 27 minutes in five space flights.

Hawley married fellow astronaut Sally Ride in 1982.

He served as a mission specialist on STS-41D in 1984, STS-61C in 1986, STS-31 in 1990, STS-82 in 1997 and STS-93 in 1999.

Hawley was the last member of NASA Astronaut Group 8 to make a space flight.

STS-41-D Discovery (August 30 to September 5, 1984) was launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on its maiden flight and landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

During the seven-day mission, the crew successfully activated the OAST-1 solar cell wing experiment, deployed the SBS-D, SYNCOM IV-2, and TELSTAR 3-C satellites, operated the CFES-III experiment, the student crystal growth experiment, as well as photography experiments using the IMAX motion picture camera.

The mission was completed in 96 orbits of the Earth in 144 hours and 57 minutes.

Following an aborted attempt to launch STS-41-D where two main engines were stopped shortly after they started because the third failed to start, Hawley is reported to have broken the tense atmosphere in the shuttle cabin, saying, "Gee, I thought we'd be a lot higher at MECO!"

STS-61-C Columbia (January 12–18, 1986) was launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and returned to a night landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

During the six-day flight, the crew deployed the SATCOM K1 satellite and conducted experiments in astrophysics and materials processing.

Mission duration was 146 hours and 03 minutes.

The couple divorced in 1987.

STS-31 Discovery ( April 24–29, 1990) was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and also returned to land at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

During the five-day mission, the crew deployed the Hubble Space Telescope, and conducted a variety of middeck experiments involving the study of protein crystal growth, polymer membrane processing, and the effects of weightlessness and magnetic fields on an ion arc. They also operated a variety of cameras, including both the IMAX in-cabin and cargo bay cameras, for Earth observations from their record-setting altitude of 380 miles.

The mission was completed in 76 orbits of the earth in 121 hours.

STS-82 Discovery (February 11–21, 1997), the second Hubble Space Telescope (HST) maintenance mission, was launched at night and returned to a night landing at Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

During the flight, Hawley's primary role was to operate the Shuttle's 50-foot robot arm to retrieve and redeploy the HST following completion of upgrades and repairs.

Hawley also operated the robot arm during five spacewalks in which two teams installed two new spectrometers and eight replacement instruments.

They also replaced insulation patches over three compartments containing key data-processing, electronics and scientific-instrument telemetry packages.

HST was then redeployed and boosted to a higher orbit.

The flight was completed in 149 orbits covering 3.8 million miles in 9 days, 23 hours, 37 minutes.

STS-93 Columbia (July 22–27, 1999) was launched at night from the Kennedy Space Center on a five-day mission returning to KSC for the 12th night landing in the Shuttle Program's history.

Hawley served as Columbia's flight engineer.

The primary mission objective was the successful deployment of the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the third of NASA's Great Observatories after Hubble Space Telescope and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.

Hawley also served as the primary operator of a second telescope carried in the crew module and used for several days to make broadband ultraviolet observations of a variety of Solar System objects.

The mission completed 79 orbits in 4 days, 22 hours, and 50 minutes.

Hawley is a member of the American Astronomical Society, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Sigma Pi Sigma, and Phi Beta Kappa.

Now retired, he resides in Lawrence, Kansas, where his parents also live.

One of Hawley's brothers, John F. Hawley, was a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Virginia and shared the Shaw Prize in Astronomy in 2013.