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Apr 8, 2021
Astronaut Philip K. Chapman. Image Credit: NASA
NASA is saddened by the death of Apollo-era astronaut Philip K. Chapman. He was selected in August 1967 to be a member of Astronaut Group 6, who were primarily scientists rather than pilots.
Chapman was the first Australian-born American astronaut. During the International Geophysical Year in 1958, he was an auroral/radio physicist at Mawson Station, Antarctica, as a member of the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions. Later, he was awarded a Doctor of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
After his selection to the astronaut corps, he completed one year of training at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, and he was involved in preparations for lunar missions, serving in particular as mission scientist for the Apollo 14 mission. Dr. Chapman left the agency in 1972.
Dr. Chapman wanted to expand humanity beyond Earth: “We can build arks for societies of humans to go on multi-generational missions.”
His career after leaving NASA is reported on Wikipedia’s Chapman page. Philip Chapman died on April 5, 2021, in Scottsdale, Arizona.
In this image from 1968, Dr. Chapman trains in the Lunar Module Simulator, Centrifuge, and the Apollo Mission Simulator at the then-Manned Spacecraft Center, now Johnson Space Center. in Houston.
Related links:
Apollo 14: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo14.html
Wikipedia’s Chapman page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Chapman
Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Yvette Smith.
R.I.P., Orbiter.ch
