BlackboardNASA Astronaut to Donate Space Suit to Smithsonian
Dr. Norman Thagard, the first American to ride aboard the Russian Space Station Mir from a Russian launchpad, will donate the space suit he wore on that flight to the Smithsonian. This special ceremony will take place at the National Air and Space Museum on Tuesday, January 14th from 8:30 - 9:30 am EST.
A veteran of five space missions, Thagard was launched to Mir on a Russian Soyuz rocket on March 14, 1995. He returned to Earth on July 7, 1995 on the Space Shuttle Atlantis at the conclusion of the first Shuttle/Mir docking mission. Thagard resigned from the astronaut corps in January, 1996 after accepting the position of visiting professor and director of external relations for Florida A&M University - Florida State University, College of Engineering, Tallahassee.
Also planning to attend the ceremony are NASA astronaut Dr. Shannon Lucid, who replaced Thagard aboard Mir, and Cosmonaut Yuriy Usachev. Lucid's six-month mission on the Mir space station established her as the U.S. space flight duration record holder and the world's female record holder. Usachev served as the flight engineer during most of Lucid's tour on Mir.
