Man on a Mission by David Hilmers

Author:David Hilmers [Hilmers, Dr. David; Houston, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780310736141
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Published: 2013-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

The Unexpected Flight

Astronaut Sonny Carter was universally loved, but, wow, he was as competitive as the day is long.

Sonny was an Eagle Scout and played soccer, ran track, and became an intramural wrestling champion during his college days at Emory University. That was impressive enough, but the native of Macon, Georgia, later played professional soccer with the Atlanta Chiefs of the North American Soccer League while in medical school. I was later to learn how incredible it was that he could both go to medical school and play professional soccer. He went on to fly the F–4 Phantom in the Navy, and wound up attending both the famous Navy Fighter Weapons School and Naval Test Pilot School. Physician. College athlete. Professional soccer player. Top gun. Test pilot. You name it, and Sonny was all about becoming the best of the best.

Even when we went running together, it was never just a leisurely jog. It always — always — ended up becoming a race to the finish, and I remember in particular a couple of epic runs that we had along the banks of the Potomac River when we happened to be in Washington D.C. together. His driven nature extended to my own plans to attend medical school. He encouraged me to follow in his footsteps, but in a unique I-dare-you-to-try-it kind of way.

Sonny was on his way from Houston to speak at a Rotary Club convention when his commercial airplane crashed in Brunswick, Georgia, on April 5, 1991. All twenty-three people on board the flight — including Sonny and former United States Senator John Tower — were killed. A veteran of one shuttle flight already, he had been assigned as a mission specialist on STS-42 when his plane went down in southern Georgia.

Ron Grabe and I were members of the same astronaut candidate class, and we made our first spaceflights together on STS-51J. The flight of STS-42 was to be Ron’s first as a commander. One of my closest friends in the office was Norm Thagard, and he was the “payload commander,” the astronaut in charge of the experiments on board. I was so busy studying for the MCAT that I’m not quite sure how it all worked out, but the two of them evidently made it known that they wanted me to take Sonny’s place. Dan Brandenstein, then the chief of the astronaut office, came to me with the idea.

The suggestion took me by surprise, and my first reaction was to protest and try to remind Dan of my plans for medical school. But because Ron and Norm had gone to bat for me, I prayed about it and made a decision. I would do both. I would train for the flight and continue preparing for medical school. No problem, right?

Dan agreed and, gracious as always, offered to work with me as much as possible on scheduling and so forth. Within just a couple of days, I started training as a mission specialist on STS-42, which was slated to launch in January 1992 and was designated as International Microgravity Laboratory 1.

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