Robert L. Crippen became a NASA astronaut in September 1969. He was a member of the astronaut support crew for the Skylab 2, 3, and 4 missions, and served in this same capacity for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission, which was completed successfully in July 1975. He served as pilot on STS-1 (April 1981), and was the spacecraft commander on STS-7 (June 1983), STS-41C (April 1984) and STS-41G (October 1984). A four-flight veteran, Mr. Crippen has logged over 565 hours in space, orbited the earth 374 times and traveled over 9.4 million miles. From 1986-1989, he was assigned as deputy director, Shuttle Operations, at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, responsible for final Shuttle preparation, mission execution, and return of the orbiter to KSC after landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California. He also served as director, Space Shuttle, at NASA Headquarters from 1990 until he was named KSC director in 1992. In his headquarters post, Mr. Crippen presided over the overall Shuttle program requirements and performance, and total program control including budget, schedule, and program content. As KSC Center Director, he managed the processing, launch, and recovery of Space Shuttle missions. He next served as vice president of Training Simulation Systems at Lockheed Martin Information Systems. In December 1996, Mr. Crippen was named President of the Thiokol Propulsion Group, Brigham City, Utah. He retired in April 2001.