WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

After more than 10 days in Earth orbit, the crewmembers for STS-9 egress the Space Shuttle Columbia following its successful landing at Edwards Air Force Base in southern California. Descending the stairs are (from bottom) Astronaut John W. Young, Brewster H. Shaw Jr. and Robert A. R. Parker; West German physicist Dr. Ulf Merbold; Astronaut Owen K. Garriott, and Dr. Byron K. Lichtenberg, a biomedical engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Young was STS-9 crew commander; Shaw, pilot Drs. Parker and Garriott were mission specialists; and Drs. Merbold and Lichtenberg, payload specialists. Dr. Merbold was the European Space Agency?s first scientist to fly aboard a NASA spacecraft and Dr. Lichtenberg was America?s first non-astronaut to join a NASA crew in space. On hand to greet the crewmembers is George W. S. Abbey, director of flight crew operations.