Samuel T. Durrance

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">Template:Cite web</ref> He attended Wilson Junior High and graduated from Plant High School<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> in 1961, lettering in American football for three years and playing both defense and offense.<ref name="auto1">Template:Cite 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>Template:Cite web</ref>

Durrance was a principal research scientist in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite 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>Template:Cite web</ref>

Durrance resided in Melbourne, Florida, and was a professor of physics and space sciences at Florida Institute of Technology.<ref>Template:Cite 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

Sam Durrance and Jeffrey Hoffman during the first classroom lesson broadcast from space

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">Template:Cite 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>Template:Cite web</ref> Durrance's first mission was for STS-61-E.<ref>Template:Cite 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)

Payload Specialists Durrance and Parise work out.

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>Template:Cite 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>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

• Template:Cite web
• Spacefacts biography of Samuel T. Durrance
• Florida Tech Physics and Space Science Department Faculty