Roger Keith Crouch
Roger Keith Crouch is an American physicist and who flew two Space Shuttle missions tied to the Microgravity Science Laboratory program. His two flights, STS-83 and STS-94, are inseparable because STS-94 was the reflight of STS-83 after the first mission ended early.
- Born
- September 12, 1940
- Died
- N/A
- Birthplace
- Jamestown, Tennessee,United States
Flights
2
Spacewalks
0
EVA time
N/A
In space
19 days, 15 hours, 58 minutes
Bio
Crouch studied physics at Tennessee Technological University and Virginia Tech before building a research career in materials science, crystal growth, and microgravity experimentation. He entered the shuttle program as a specialist chosen for the science payload rather than as a career NASA pilot-astronaut.
On STS-83, Columbia launched the Microgravity Science Laboratory but returned early because of a fuel-cell problem. NASA reflown the mission as STS-94 three months later, allowing Crouch and the crew to recover the research objectives with a longer Spacelab mission. Crouch is best understood as a payload specialist whose value was direct experiment expertise in the Spacelab era.