Former test pilot Blaine Hammond, making his first space flight this week as co-pilot of the shuttle Discovery, said data collected during the 'Star Wars' research flight is crucial for the eventual development of a defensive missile shield.
Hammond, 39, and six crewmates were scheduled to spend eight days in orbit to launch five small satellites and conduct a battery of experiments to learn more about how to detect enemy missiles in flight. It is the most ambitious Strategic Defense Initiative mission ever attempted.
'This is probably one of the best overall missions the shuttle is designed to do,' he said in an interview. 'Without astronauts up there doing the things we're going to do, they could not collect this data.
'They're concerned about their ability to detect and track these enemy missiles successfully and actually engage the missile and destroy it. To do that, they have to have data (and) they need a cooperating target.'
A strong supporter of the Strategic Defense Initiative missile defense program, Hammond said the data collected during Discovery's mission 'is essential to further research and progression of this sort of system. I'm real pleased to be a part of it.'
'SDI's taken some severe budget cuts,' he said. 'Part of the reason our mission is so complictated is because the budget's been cut and they had to put two payloads on one shuttle.'
Despite an around-the-clock schedule, Hammond, a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, said he was especially eager to log as much 'window time' as possible to enjoy the view from orbit.
'I'm looking forward to being in a front row seat driving the bus, essentially, and being in zero (gravity) for the first time,' he said. 'I can't wait to do that. I love flying at night and looking at the stars and I just can't wait to see the beauty of the Earth from the vantage point of a 140-mile-high orbit.'
But the responsibilities of piloting the $2 billion shuttle are never far from mind.
'On ascent, I'm the only person who can throttle the engines,' he said. 'There are a lot of things I could do that would kill the crew, in terms of throwing the wrong switch or mis-identifying a malfunction.
'If I throw the wrong switch and the engine quits, there's nothing I can do to recover, I can't turn it back on. So it's real critical that I do it right.'
Hammond was born in Savannah, Ga., but he considers St. Louis to be his hometown.
After graduating from Kirkwood High School in Kirkwood, Mo., in 1969, he earned an engineering degree from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1973 and a master's degree in engineering science and mechanics from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1974.
He then attended pilot school at Reese Air Force Base, Texas, in 1975 and was assigned to the 496th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Hahn Air Base, Germany, flying F-4E 'Wild Weasel' jets like those used in Operation Desert Storm to knock out Iraqi radar systems.
In 1979 and 1980, Hammond, flying F-5 jets, trained foreign pilots at Williams Air Force Base, Ariz., before moving on to the Empire Test Pilot School at Boscombe Down in the United Kingdom.
Two years later, Hammond returned to the United States and was assigned to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in 1982, where he managed several projects before being named an instructor at the Air Force Test Pilot School.
Hammond has logged more than 3,100 hours flying time in 15 American jets and 10 flown by the British Royal Air Force.
Making the switch from high performance fighters to the space shuttle was not as easy as one might imagine.
'Things never happen in space as fast as a fighter pilot would like them to,' he said. 'You have to be very patient and I wasn't born with a big bag full of patience. It's real hard for me to sit back and let things happen real slowly and methodically.'
He was selected by NASA as an astronaut in May 1984. Prior to his assignment to Discovery's crew, Hammond served in a variety of capacities at the Kennedy Space Center, helping set cockpit switches prior to several missions and relaying instructions to orbiting crews.
Hammond is a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Academy and a member of the Air Force Academy Association of Graduates and the Order of Daedalians.
In a short NASA biography, he listed his hobbies as golf, tennis, cnow skiing, sailing, scuba diving, squash and racquetball.
Hammond is the father of two children, Vanessa Ann, 11, and Michael Blaine, 3. His divorce from the former Lela Ann Walton of Houston became final just a week and a half before his launch aboard Discovery.
