Richard J. Hieb Astronaut Profile Richard J. Hieb NASA Astronaut (retired)

Richard Hieb is an aerospace engineer who worked for NASA from 1979 through 1995. Hieb graduated from Northwest Nazarene College in 1977 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in math and physics and from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1979 with a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering.

He worked in Mission Control Center on the ascent team for STS-1, the first Space Shuttle Program flight. Hieb has an extensive background in on-orbit procedures, particularly in rendezvous and proximity operations.

Selected as an astronaut in June 1985, he is a veteran of three space flights and logged more than 750 hours in space, including 17 hours performing spacewalks.

On April 28, 1991, Hieb flew on the crew of STS-39 for the Department of Defense aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. He operated the Infrared Background Signature Satellite (IBSS) from within the payload bay.

On May 7, 1992, Hieb flew on the maiden voyage of Space Shuttle Endeavour as a mission specialist on STS-49. During this mission, Hieb became part of the first-ever three-person spacewalk. The spacewalk was part of a satellite rescue mission, where Hieb and his colleagues retrieved an Intelsat VI that had failed to reach its intended orbit. Hieb’s team attached a new upper stage booster and returned the satellite to its intended geosynchronous orbit. Hieb, Thomas Akers and Pierre Thuot spent more than eight hours capturing the wayward satellite and attaching the booster. For more than 10 years, this spacewalk held the record for the longest in history. It still is the only three-person spacewalk ever conducted. On July 8, 1994, Hieb flew as the payload commander on the crew of STS-65 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. The mission was the second flight of the International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-2), in which the crew performed more than 80 experiments focused on materials and life sciences research in microgravity. The mission also set a flight duration record for the Space Shuttle Program.

Hieb retired from NASA in 1995. He is married to the former Jeannie Hendricks and they have two children.

MISSION PATCHES

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