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DAVID M WALKER CAPTAIN US NAVY DATE OF BIRTH: 05/20/1944 DATE OF DEATH: 04/23/2001 BURIED AT: SECTION 66, SITE 5191 ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
David Mathieson Walker (Captian, USN, Retired), veteran of four space shuttle missions including flights that rescued and deployed satellites, died April 23, 2001, following a sudden and brief illness. He was 56 years old.
Walker was selected by NASA in January 1978 and became an astronaut in August 1979. During his four missions he logged more than 700 hours in space.
“The NASA community has lost a great friend and an admired colleague,” said Johnson Space Center Director (Acting) Roy S. Estess. “Highly and deservedly decorated for his many achievements both as a Navy captain and as a NASA astronaut, Captain Walker served his country with distinction. His successful shuttle missions were indispensable in helping NASA further the exploration of space and enhance life on Earth.”
Walker first served as pilot on STS 51-A, the second flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery, in November 1984. During the nearly eight-day flight, the crew deployed two communications satellites and conducted the first space salvage mission in history, retrieving two inoperable communications satellites for return to Earth.
In his first space flight as a shuttle commander, Atlantis’ STS-30 mission in May 1989, Walker and his crew successfully deployed the Magellan spacecraft, the first planetary probe to be released from the space shuttle. Magellan arrived at Venus in August 1990 and mapped 95 percent of the surface of the planet. Crewmembers also worked on secondary payloads involving fluid research and chemistry during the four-day mission.
Walker next commanded a five-member crew on STS-53 in December 1992 aboard Discovery. His crew deployed a classified Department of Defense payload and performed experiments during its seven-day mission.
Walker flew his final mission as a shuttle commander in September 1995. The STS-69 crew deployed and retrieved two payloads during the nearly 11-day flight aboard Endeavour. The Wake Shield Facility, a saucer-shaped satellite that flew free of the shuttle for several days, was deployed to grow thin films in the near perfect vacuum created by the wake of the satellite as it moved through space. The other payload, the Spartan-201 astronomy satellite, helped researchers study the outer atmosphere of the Sun and its transition into the solar wind that constantly flows past the Earth. Crewmembers also performed a six-hour space walk to test assembly techniques for the International Space Station. Walker was born in Columbus, Georgia, May 20, 1944, and was raised in the family home in Eustis, Florida. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1966.
Following his graduation from Annapolis, Walker received flight training from the Naval Aviation Training Command at bases in Florida, Mississippi and Texas. Designated a Naval aviator in December 1967, he proceeded to Naval Air Station Miramar in California for assignment to fly F-4 Phantoms from the carriers USS Enterprise and USS America.
In January 1972, he was assigned as an experimental and engineering test pilot in the flight test division at the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Maryland, While there, he participated in the Navy’s preliminary evaluation and Board of Inspection and Survey trials of the F-14 Tomcat and tested a leading edge slat modification to the F-4 Phantom.
Three years later, Walker was assigned to Fighter Squadron 142, stationed at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia, as a fighter pilot and was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea twice aboard USS America.
He logged more than 7,500 hours flying time including more than 6,500 hours in jet aircraft.
Walker retired from NASA in April 1996. Until his illness, he was active as the president of the Idaho Aviation Foundation, a non-profit corporation promoting general aviation in the state of Idaho.
Walker’s honors and awards included the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement, the Legion of Merit, two Defense Meritorious Service Medals, six Navy Air Medals, the Battle Efficiency Ribbon, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, two NASA Distinguished Service Medals, the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, four NASA Space Flight Medals, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, the Vietnam Service Medal, and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal.
1978-1996, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Other Memories In search of new challenges, Walker, by then a commander in the US Navy, successfully applied to become an astronaut in January 1978, three years before the maiden flight of the space shuttle. After completion of the mandatory one-year training and evaluation period, he carried out a variety of assignments while awaiting his first space mission.
His chance came in November 1984, when he took the pilot's seat on STS-51A, the 14th shuttle flight and the first space salvage mission in history. Over a period of eight days, the crew successfully deployed two communication satellites before carrying out two ambitious spacewalks to retrieve the disabled Palapa B-2 and Westar VI satellites. Apart from helping to fly the shuttle, Walker's tasks included monitoring his colleagues during the risky extravehicular activity. STS 51-A completed 127 orbits of the Earth before landing at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 16 November 1984.
With a successful, high-profile mission safely under his belt and his promotion to Captain, Walker's star was on the rise. He was assigned as commander of STS 61-G, which was scheduled to deploy the Galileo spacecraft on a mission to explore Jupiter in May 1986. After the loss of the shuttle Challenger in January 1986 set the programme back several years, Walker was reassigned as Chief of Space Station Design and Development in the astronaut office. When the shuttle eventually became operational once more, he was given the command of STS-30, the fourth post-Challenger mission.
Shuttle Atlantis was launched from Florida on 4 May 1989. Although the four-day flight was one of the shortest flown during the space shuttle era, the crew made history by successfully deploying the Magellan spacecraft that would use radar to map the planet Venus. It was the first US planetary science mission launched since 1978, and the first planetary probe to be deployed from the shuttle. Following 64 orbits of the Earth, the STS-30 mission concluded with the first cross-wind landing test of the shuttle Orbiter at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
Over-elated with the success of his first command, Walker almost pressed the self-destruct button eight days after his triumphant return. While he was flying to Washington, DC, to attend a White House reception hosted by President George Bush, his Nasa T-38 jet trainer came within 100 feet of a Pan Am airliner. The following year, an official inquiry into the near miss and other breaches of safety rules resulted in his being removed from the Department of Defense STS-44 mission and grounded for 60 days.
With his career in the doldrums, Walker decided to continue with Nasa. He later commented,
I think, had I decided I wanted to leave the space programme some time back, I probably could have done so with at least some people probably happy to see me go. But I didn't and . . . the opportunity to fly again is satisfying for me.
Once returned to flight status, Walker was given command of the final Department of Defense shuttle mission to carry a top secret payload. A close camaraderie formed among Walker, Voss and the rest of the STS-53 astronauts, and each of the so-called "Dog Crew" was assigned a "dog tag" or nickname. Despite the disapproval of Nasa public affairs officials, this irreverent ritual was repeated by Walker, Voss and their colleagues on the STS-69 mission.
STS-53 launched from Florida on 2 December 1992, deployed the classified payload known as DOD-1 and then performed several Military-Man-in-Space and Nasa experiments. However, attempts to deploy an Orbital Debris Radar Calibration experiment ended in failure. After 175 hours aloft, Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on 9 December 1992.
From July 1993 to June 1994, Walker was Chief of the Station/Exploration Support Office, Flight Crew Operations Directorate, after which rather ironically considering his past record he chaired the Johnson Space Center Safety Review Board.
His fourth and final shuttle mission was as commander of STS-69. Endeavour was scheduled to lift off on 20 July 1995, but delays in previous flights, the intervention of hurricane Erin, and the need for a major repair of the solid rocket-booster nozzle-joints meant that Walker's five-man crew eventually lifted off from the Cape on 7 September.
The crew successfully deployed and retrieved a Spartan satellite, equipped with an astronomy payload, and the saucer-shaped Wake Shield Facility that, despite a number of technical problems, was able to grow semi-conductor specimens. Also on board was a science payload called the International Extreme Ultraviolet Hitchhiker. Endeavour landed at the Kennedy Space Center on 18 September after 171 orbits of the Earth. This brought Walker's overall space time to more than 724 hours.
