Seven myths about the Challenger disaster

Myth #8, which I heard twice on this morning's news: Christa McAuliffe was the first civilian to go into space. Gregory Jarvis, also on the Challenger was also a civilian, working for Hughes at the time. Charlie Walker from McDonnell Douglas had already made 4 shuttle flights. And there may have been others.

Neil Armstrong was a civilian test pilot. I think he was the first in space also.

Jarvis and Walker were civilians, as in not NASA employees.

Armstrong was a naval avaitor, although he was not in the navy at the time of his selection by NASA.

For years Armstrong was called the first civilian astronaut, as in non-military at the time of his selection. I can see the distinction, but that only means a different term is needed to describe Jarvis and Walker.

Jarvis was a retired Air Force Captain

Joseph Walker was the first civilian in space. On July 19, 1963, he flew an X-15 to an altitude of 347,800 feet, over 106 kilometers.

Civilians are those not in the military, NASA is not a military agency.

Joe Walker flew P-38s during WWII. He left the USAAF at the end of the war and was hired by NACA in March 1945. NACA begat NASA and Walker was named chief NASA pilot for the X-15 project in 1959. If he had been in the USAF while flying the X-15 he would have received USAF astronaut wings for his first flight above 50 miles, which occurred on January 17, 1963. He reached an altitude of 271,700 feet on that flight, above the USAF's standard of 50 miles but less than the 100 kilometers used by the FAI. None of the civilian X-15 pilots received astronaut wings for their flights at the time because there were no astronaut wings for civilians. That was rectified last August, see the link below:

Christa McAuliffe and Gregory Jarvis did not go into space.

Jarvis was a former USAF captain, he did not retire from the service.

I think by "civilian", they mean non-NASA (as in NASA not being their primary occupation) as well as non-military. Sen. Jake Garn and Rep. Bill Campbell made trips (behore January 1986), and I think these qualify as "civilian" by MSNBC's definition.

Then they use the word incorrectly.

Charlie Walker was an Engineer employed by McDonnell Douglas Astronautics, a major player in the miltary-industrial complex. MDD had a commercial contract with a pharmaceutical company. Under that contract MDD and CW developed an electrophoresis machine to separate materials in a low g environment. MDD subsequently paid NASA to train and fly CW, and the equipment, on the shuttle four times, to run the equipment. Many buttons were produced proclaiming Charlie Walker as a space manufacturer. CW's experiments were successful and pushed the pharmaceutical company to develop more economical earth based production.

Alan

Non-NASA? But then Christa WAS a NASA astronaut.