Richard H. Truly

Richard Harrison Truly
File:Richard H. Truly, official NASA photo.jpg
Status	Retired
Nationality	American
Occupation	Test Pilot
Space career
USAF/NASA Astronaut
Rank	Vice Admiral, USN
Time in space	8d 07h 21m
Selection	1965 USAF MOL Group, 1969 NASA Group 7
Missions	Enterprise Approach and Landing Tests, STS-2, STS-8
Mission insignia

Richard Harrison Truly (born November 12, 1937) is a retired Vice Admiral in the United States Navy, former astronaut, and was the eighth Administrator of NASA from 1989 to 1992. He was the first former astronaut to head the space agency.

Born in Fayette, Mississippi, Truly attended schools in Fayette and Meridian, Mississippi, receiving a bachelor of aeronautical engineering degree from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1959. Truly was ordered to flight school and was designated a Naval Aviator on October 7, 1960. His initial tour of duty was in Fighter Squadron 33 where he flew F-8 Crusaders aboard USS Intrepid and USS Enterprise and made more than 300 carrier landings.

From 1963 to 1965, he was first a student and later an instructor at the U.S. Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California. In 1965, he was among the first military astronauts selected to the USAF Manned Orbiting Laboratory program in Los Angeles, California. He became an astronaut for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in August 1969 after the cancellation of the MOL project. He was a member of the astronaut support crew and capsule communicator for all three of the manned Skylab missions (1973) and the Apollo-Soyuz mission (1975). He served as pilot of two of the five free flights of the Space Shuttle Enterprise in 1977 and the STS-2 in 1981. He served as commander of STS-8 in 1983, the first flight of an African-American (Guion Bluford) into orbit and the first night launch and landing. After STS-8, Truly left NASA to become the first commander of the Naval Space Command.

Three weeks after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, Truly returned to NASA to became NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Flight on February 20, 1986. While it only took a few days to determine the technical reason for the accident, sorting out the root cause would be a little more difficult. In the end, it would take Truly and NASA's "return to flight" program 31 months before the space shuttle Discovery successfully flew on September 29, 1988 with STS-26. In March of 1986, Truly noted in a memo that there were several actions NASA needed to accomplish before launching another shuttle. They included "Solid Rocket Motor joint redesign, Critical Items review and Operations and Maintainance Instructions review".

Post NASA

After leaving NASA, Adm. Truly became Vice President and Director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute, part of the Georgia Institute of Technology, in Atlanta, Georgia. He served in this role from 1992 - 1997. Then he served as Director of the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and as Executive Vice President of Midwest Research Institute from 1997-2005.

In 1988, he was awarded the Society of Experimental Test Pilots James H. Doolittle Award. He also received that year the Collier Trophy for his role in assisting NASA's return to launching manned missions after the Challenger disiaster. In January of 1989, Truly was presented the Presidential Citizen's Medal by President Reagan.

Retired Vice Admiral Richard Truely testified before the US Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations on the subject of national security in May of 2007.

His decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, two Legions of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Meritorious Service Medal. His NASA awards include the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, two NASA Space Flight Medals, and two NASA Exceptional Service Medals.

External links

• Biography on Truly