I wrote earlier about how STS-82 and USS Lassen DDG-82 might have been scheduled to reflect parts of my career in the U.S. Navy, especially my graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1982, or so goes the theory.
I wrote about the namesake of USS Lassen DDG-82 and of details I found about the Medal Of Honor he received for heroism observed on 6/19/68. I assume that if the ship DDG-82 was scheduled to reflect details of my career, then something about Leiutenant Lassen himself might also hold clues about my U.S. Navy career.
So then I started looking at space shuttle flight STS-93 because I calculated that I would have been 9.3 years old on 6/19/68, the date Lt. Lassen earned the Medal Of Honor.
I was going to compile a list and present it all together, but this one just blew me away so I'll describe what I have found so far with this one person. It is probably especially relevant because he was the pilot of STS-93 and I wonder if that means I was actually the pilot of that helicopter on 6/19/68.
STS-93 marked the 95th launch of the Space Shuttle, the 26th launch of Columbia, and the 21st night launch of a Space Shuttle. It had the first female Shuttle Commander. Its primary payload was the Chandra X-ray Observatory. It would also be the last mission of Columbia until March 2002. During the interim, Columbia would be out of service for upgrading, and would not fly again until STS-109.
Five seconds after liftoff, an electrical short knocked out controllers for two main engines. The engines automatically switched to their backup controllers. Had a further short shut down two engines, the orbiter would have ditched into the ocean, although the crew could have possibly bailed out. Concurrently a pin came loose inside one engine and ruptured a cooling line, allowing a hydrogen fuel leak. This caused premature fuel exhaustion, but the vehicle safely achieved a slightly lower orbit. Had the failure propagated further, a risky transatlantic or RTLS abort would have been required.
Jeffrey Shears "Bones" Ashby (born June 16, 1954) is a former American naval aviator and astronaut, a veteran of three space shuttle missions. He is a retired Captain in the U.S. Navy
...
...he piloted space shuttle mission STS-93
I turned 9 years old on 3/3/68. I count that the period 3/3/68 to 6/19/68 was 109 days.
Multiplying 365 by 0.3 equals, 109.5 days, so I count that at 6/19/68, I was 9.3 years old.
The pilot of STS-93 was born 6/16/1954 and 5117 days later was 6/19/1968.
From his birthday of 6/19/1954 to 3/3/1959 was 1718 days.
Multiplying 5117 by 0.3359 equals 1718.8003
