Samuel T. Durrance
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Samuel Thornton Durrance (September 17, 1943 – May 5, 2023) was an American scientist who flew aboard two NASA Space Shuttle missions as a payload specialist.
Background
Durrance was born September 17, 1943, in Tallahassee, Florida, but grew up in Tampa, Florida.<ref name="auto">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He attended Wilson Junior High and graduated from Plant High School<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> in 1961, lettering in American football for three years and playing both defense and offense.<ref name="auto1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He received a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Science degree in physics (with honors), at California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA), 1972 and 1974, respectively,<ref name="auto"/> and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in astro-geophysics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, 1980.<ref name="auto1"/> In 2000, he was awarded a Honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder along with eight other astronaut alums.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Durrance was a principal research scientist in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was a co-investigator for the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope, one of the instruments of the Astro Observatory.<ref name=":0" />
Beginning in 2001, he was the executive director of the Florida Space Research Institute which was located at the NASA Kennedy Space Center.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Durrance resided in Melbourne, Florida, and was a professor of physics and space sciences at Florida Institute of Technology.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Durrance was a member of the American Astronomical Society, American Geophysical Union, International Astronomical Union, Association of Space Explorers, Planetary Society, and Phi Kappa Phi.<ref name="auto"/>
Academic career
Durrance had been involved in the flight hardware development, optical and mechanical design, construction, and integration of the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope and the Astro Observatory,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and had conducted research and directed graduate students at the Johns Hopkins University<ref name="auto2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He had designed and built spectrometers, detectors, and imaging systems, and made numerous spacecraft and ground-based astronomical observations. He conceived and directed a program at Johns Hopkins University to develop adaptive-optics instrumentation for ground-based astronomy. He led the team that designed and constructed the Adaptive Optics Coronagraph, which led to the discovery of the first cool brown dwarf orbiting a nearby star. He was also a co-discoverer of changes in the planet-forming disk surrounding the star beta Pictoris.
In March 1986,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Durrance's first mission was for STS-61-E.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It was canceled after the Challenger disaster.<ref name="auto"/> Durrance logged over 615 hours in space as a payload specialist and member of the crew of Space Shuttle Columbia for the STS-35/Astro-1 and Space Shuttle Endeavour for the STS-67/Astro-2 missions.<ref name="auto2"/>
Later assignment (2006)
Durrance was employed by the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida, serving as a professor in the Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Illness and death
Durrance was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2021. He died at a hospice facility in Viera, Florida, on May 5, 2023, of complications from a fall, after battling dementia and Parkinson's disease. He was 79.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
References
External links
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- Pages with broken file links
- 1943 births
- 2023 deaths
- 21st-century American physicists
- 20th-century American astronomers
- American science writers
- Scientists from Tampa, Florida
- California State University, Los Angeles alumni
- University of Colorado Boulder alumni
- NASA sponsored astronauts
- Johns Hopkins University faculty
- Florida Institute of Technology faculty
- Space Shuttle program astronauts
- Members of Phi Kappa Phi