James Donald "Wxb" Wetherbee (born 27 November 1952) is an American Naval officer and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of six Space Shuttle missions and is the only American to have commanded five spaceflight missions.
Wetherbee was raised in Huntington Station, New York.[1] He earned a bachelors degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Notre Dame before receiving his commission in the United States Navy. A Navy test pilot, Wetherbee worked extensively on the F/A-18 aircraft before being selected as an astronaut candidate in 1984. He piloted mission STS-32 in 1990 and commanded missions STS-52 (1992), STS-63 (1995), STS-86 (1997), STS-102 (2001), and STS-113 (2002). The final three missions were dockings with Mir and the International Space Station; STS-113 was the last Space shuttle Mission before the Columbia disaster.
Wetherbee retired from NASA in January 2005 and currently works for BP.
Wetherbee is married and has two children.
[edit] Special honors
In 2009, Wetherbee was inducted into the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame.[2]
[edit] Records
- Only American to have commanded five missions in space.[3]
- Has landed the Space Shuttle more times than anyone (five).[4]
- At 6'4" (1.93 m), Jim Wetherbee is the tallest person to fly in space[5]
[edit] References
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Wetherbee, Jim |
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| Date of birth |
1952-11-27 |
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Flushing, Queens |
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