James Donald "Wxb" Wetherbee (born November 27, 1952) (

Capt Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

, USN, Ret.), is a retired

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

officer and

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators because they a ...

test pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testin ...

aerospace engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

, and

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

. He is a veteran of six

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

missions and is the only American to have commanded five spaceflight missions.

Early life and education

Wetherbee was born on November 27, 1952, in

Flushing, New York Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial and retail area, and the ...

, and raised in Huntington Station, New York. He enjoys

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow for basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International S ...

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

running Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion by which humans and other animals move quickly on foot. Running is a gait with an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is in contrast to walkin ...

, and

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

. He graduated from Holy Family Diocesan High School in South Huntington, New York, in 1970. He earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in

Aerospace Engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

from the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

in 1974.

Naval service

Following his graduation from Notre Dame, he received his commission in the

, in 1975. He was designated a

Naval Aviator Naval aviation / Aeronaval is the application of military air power by navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases. It often involves '' navalised aircraft'', specifically designed for naval use. Seaborne aviation encompas ...

in December 1976. After training in the A-7E, he was assigned to Attack Squadron 72 (VA-72) from August 1977 to November 1980, aboard the

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

, , and logged 125 night carrier landings. After attending the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in

Patuxent River The Patuxent River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in the state of Maryland. There are three main river drainages for central Maryland: the Potomac River to the west passing through Washington, D.C., the Patapsco River to the northeas ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, in 1981, he was assigned to the Systems Engineering Test Directorate. He was a project officer and

for the weapons delivery system and avionics integration for the F/A-18 aircraft. Subsequently, assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 132 (VFA-132), he flew operationally in the F/A-18 from January 1984, until his selection for the astronaut candidate program. He has logged over 7,000 hours flying time in 20 different types of aircraft, including 345 carrier landings.

NASA career

Wetherbee was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1984, and became an astronaut in June 1985. He piloted his first mission

STS-32 STS-32 was the 33rd mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program, and the ninth launch of . Launched on January 9, 1990, it marked the first use of Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A since 1986; it also marked the first use of Mobile launcher p ...

in 1990 and commanded missions STS-52 (1992), STS-63 (1995), STS-86 (1997),

STS-102 STS-102 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle '' Discovery'' and launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. STS-102 flew in March 2001; its primary objectives were resupplying the ISS and ...

(2001), and

STS-113 STS-113 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle ''Space Shuttle Endeavour, Endeavour''. During the 14-day mission in late 2002, ''Endeavour'' and its crew extended the ISS backbone with the Int ...

(2002). The final three missions were dockings with

Mir ''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...

and the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

; STS-113 was the last

mission before the ''Columbia'' disaster. Wetherbee served as deputy director of the

Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight controller, flight control are conducted. ...

(August 1995 to April 2000), Director of the Flight Crew Operations Directorate (April 2000 – 2002), and Technical Assistant to the Director of JSC's Safety & Mission Assurance Directorate (April 2003 to June 2004).

Spaceflight experience

: ''Columbia'' (January 9–20, 1990) included the successful deployment of the Syncom IV-F5 satellite, and retrieval of the 21,400-pound

Long Duration Exposure Facility NASA's Long Duration Exposure Facility, or LDEF (pronounced "eldef"), was a cylindrical facility designed to provide long-term experimental data on the outer space environment and its effects on space systems, materials, operations and selected ...

(LDEF) using the

Remote Manipulator System Canadarm or Canadarm1 (officially Shuttle Remote Manipulator System or SRMS, also SSRMS) is a series of robotic arms that were used on the Space Shuttle orbiters to deploy, manoeuvre, and capture payloads. After the Space Shuttle ''Columbia' ...

(RMS). The crew also operated a variety of middeck experiments and conducted numerous medical test objectives, including in-flight aerobic exercise and muscle performance to evaluate human adaptation to extended duration missions. Mission duration was 173

orbits In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an physical body, object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an satellite, artificia ...

in 261 hours and 01 minute. STS-52: ''Columbia'' (October 22 to November 1, 1992) successfully deployed the Laser Geodynamic Satellite (LAGEOS), a joint Italian-American project. The crew also operated the first U.S. Microgravity Payload (USMP) with French and American experiments, and successfully completed the initial flight tests of the Canadian-built Space Vision System (SVS). Mission duration was 236 hours and 56 minutes. STS-63: ''Discovery'' (February 2–11, 1995) was the first joint flight of the new Russian-American Space Program. Mission highlights included the rendezvous with the Russian Space Station,

, operation of

Spacehab Astrotech Corporation, formerly Spacehab Inc., is a technology incubator headquartered in Austin, Texas. Astrotech uses technology sourced internally and from research institutions, government laboratories, and universities to fund, manage and se ...

, and the deployment and retrieval of Spartan 204. The mission was accomplished in 129 orbits in 198 hours and 29 minutes. STS-86: ''Atlantis'' (September 25 to October 6, 1997) was the seventh mission to rendezvous and dock with the Russian Space Station Mir. Highlights included the delivery of a Mir attitude control computer, the exchange of U.S. crew members Mike Foale and David Wolf, a

spacewalk Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable atmosphere of Earth, Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environme ...

by Scott Parazynski and Vladimir Titov to retrieve four experiments first deployed on Mir during the

STS-76 STS-76 was NASA's 76th Space Shuttle mission, and the 16th mission for Space Shuttle Atlantis, ''Atlantis''. STS-76 launched on 22 March 1996 at 08:13:04 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC from Kennedy Space Center, Kennedy Space Center Launch ...

docking mission, the transfer to Mir of 10,400 pounds of science and logistics, and the return of experiment hardware and results to Earth. Mission duration was 169 orbits in 259 hours and 21 minutes.

: ''Discovery'' (March 8–21, 2001) was the eighth Space Shuttle mission to visit the International Space Station. The mission accomplishments included the delivery of the Expedition 2 crew and the contents of the ''Leonardo''

Multi-Purpose Logistics Module A Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) is a large pressurized container that was used on Space Shuttle missions to transfer cargo to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Two MPLMs made a dozen trips in the Shuttle cargo bay and initi ...

, the completion of two successful spacewalks, the return to

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

of the

Expedition 1 Expedition 1 was the first long-duration expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). The three-person crew stayed aboard the station for 136 days, from 2 November 2000 to 19 March 2001. It was the beginning of an uninterrupte ...

crew, as well as the return of Leonardo, the reusable cargo carrier built by the

Italian Space Agency The Italian Space Agency (; ASI) is a government agency established in 1988 to fund, regulate and coordinate space exploration activities in Italy. The agency cooperates with numerous national and international entities who are active in aerospac ...

. Mission duration was 307 hours and 49 minutes.

: ''Endeavour'' (November 23 to December 7, 2002) was the sixteenth Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station. The launch occurred on November 23, 2002, to deliver the P1 Truss segment, which provides structural support for the Space Station radiators. ''Endeavour'' also delivered a new

Expedition 6 Expedition 6 was the sixth expedition to the International Space Station (25 November 2002 – 3 May 2003). It was the last three-man crew to reside on the station until the arrival of STS-121 in 2006, delivering the final astronaut of Expedi ...

crew to the Station, returning to Earth on December 7, 2002, with the

Expedition 5 Expedition 5 was the fifth long-duration stay on the International Space Station (ISS). The crew, consisting of three people, remained in space for 184 days, 178 of which were spent aboard the ISS. Expedition 5 was a continuation of an uninterru ...

crew ending their 6-month stay in

space Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...

. The total mission duration was 13 days, 18 hours and 47 minutes.

Post-NASA career

Wetherbee retired from the U.S. Navy in 2003 and left NASA in 2005 to become a consultant. He joined BP in 2006, as a safety auditor, and retired in 2014. He is currently working as a

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...

and as a

consultant A consultant (from "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice or services in an area of specialization (generally to medium or large-size corporations). Cons ...

for leaders in hazardous environments.

Personal life

Wetherbee is married to Robin DeVore Platt of

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

, and has two daughters. He currently resides in Oregon.

Organizations

Lifetime Member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots; Honorary Member, Musicians' Union, Local 47,

American Federation of Musicians The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM/AFofM) is a 501(c)(5) trade union, labor union representing professional instrumental musicians in the United States and Canada. The AFM, which has its headquarters in N ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Awards and honors

* Distinguished Flying Cross * Navy Achievement Medal * two Meritorious Unit Commendations * six

NASA Space Flight Medal The NASA Space Flight Medal is a decoration of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. According to its statutes, it is awarded "for significant achievement or service during individual participation as a civilian or military astronau ...

s * two

NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal The NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal is awarded to US government employees only for notably outstanding leadership which affects technical or administrative programs of NASA. The leadership award may be given for an act of leadership, for sustain ...

s * four

NASA Distinguished Service Medal The NASA Distinguished Service Medal is the highest award that can be bestowed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States. The medal may be presented to any member of the federal government, including both milita ...

s * Lifetime Member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots * Honorary Member of the Musicians' Union, Local 47,

, CA. * Inducted into the Long Island Air and Space Hall of Fame in the

Cradle of Aviation Museum The Cradle of Aviation Museum is an aerospace museum located in the East Garden City section of Uniondale, New York on Long Island, established to commemorate Long Island's part in the history of aviation. It is located on land once part of ...

, Garden City, NY. * Inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.

Records

* Only American to have commanded five missions in space. * Has landed the Space Shuttle more times than anyone (five). * Was the tallest person to fly in space at , until

Michael Strahan Michael Anthony Strahan ( ; born November 21, 1971) is an American television host, journalist, and former professional American football, football player. He played his entire 15-year professional career as a defensive end for the New York Gian ...

flew to space onboard Blue Origin NS-19.

References

External links

Wetherbee's official NASA biography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wetherbee, Jim 1952 births Living people 1990 in spaceflight 1992 in spaceflight 1995 in spaceflight 1997 in spaceflight 2001 in spaceflight 2002 in spaceflight American aerospace engineers American businesspeople American test pilots Aviators from New York (state) BP people Engineers from New York City People from Huntington Station, New York People from Queens, New York Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) Recipients of the NASA Distinguished Service Medal Space Shuttle program astronauts United States Astronaut Hall of Fame inductees United States Naval Aviators United States Naval Test Pilot School alumni United States Navy astronauts United States Navy captains Notre Dame College of Engineering alumni Mir crew members