Michael "Rich" Clifford, who was a NASA Astronaut and was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, died at the age of 69.
The Association of Space Explorers (ASE), a professional organization for astronauts and cosmonauts, confirmed the death of Clifford on Tuesday. He died from Parkinson's disease.
The 13th group of spaceflight trainees, known as "The Hairballs," were chosen to become astronauts by NASA in 1990. He joined the corps three years after he was assigned to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he was serving as a space shuttle vehicle integration engineer.
After graduating from basic training and working for four months with the Astronaut Office Mission Development Branch designing and evaluating crew equipment, he was named to his first crew. He was one of four people on the space shuttle Discovery on a classified mission for the Department of Defense.
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A portrait of a new NASA astronaut by Rich Clifford. The image is from NASA.
The last major military payload flown on the shuttle was deployed during the week-long flight, as well as conducted medical studies on the effects of microgravity on cells from bone tissue, muscles and blood. Three small metal spheres were released into space to test ground-based capabilities of detecting debris in low-Earth orbit and to test their own ability to observe ground-based phenomena from space as part of a military experiment.
On December 9, 1992, Discovery and its crew returned to Earth.
On April 9, 1994, he lifted off on his second spaceflight. The Space Radar Laboratory was operated by the five crewmates of the space shuttle Atlantis and was intended to provide scientists with the data needed to distinguish human-caused environmental changes from other forms of natural change.
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NASA's Rich Clifford, an Army Aviator and space shuttle mission specialist, is seen on board Atlantis' mid-deck checking on his spacesuit during the 1996 mission. The image is from NASA.
In order to be able to work around the clock, two teams of three astronauts were split into and each team was able to see more than 400 sites. The astronauts used a special cell culture system as part of a joint initiative.
Parkinson's is a chronic nervous system disorder that affects movement and was diagnosed after he landed fromSTS-59. He revealed in a series of interviews that he first noticed that his arm was limp when he walked.
Wanting to fly again in space, Clifford kept his condition a secret, telling only NASA's medical staff and his commander for this third mission. He was monitored throughout his training, but his symptoms never interfered with his preparation for his job on the crew.
In 1996, Rich Clifford worked at a restraint bar on the exterior of Russia's Mir space station. The image is from NASA.
After launching on the space shuttle Atlantis, Clifford and his crewmates delivered Shannon to live on the Russian space station Mir. He and Linda Godwin became the first Americans to perform a spacewalk outside of a shuttle.
Four experiments were attached to Mir's docking module to show the environment around the station.
On March 31, 1996, after landing back on Earth, he decided not to go for another spaceflight. He resigned from the NASA and the Astronaut corps in January 1997 because he didn't know how quickly his symptoms would progress, having spent 27 days, 18 hours and 24 minutes in space.
Michael Richard Uram "Rich" Clifford was born in San Bernardino, California, but he thought of Utah as his hometown. He received his bachelor of science degree from the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York in 1974 and his master of science degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1982.
He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army after graduating from West Point. He was top of his class when he was in the Army Aviation School. He was an instructor and assistant professor at West Point after serving three years as a platoon commander in Germany.
In 1986 he graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School and became an experimental test pilot. He flew a wide variety of fixed and rotary winged aircraft as a Master Army Aviator.
Between his second and third spaceflights, Clifford retired from the Army with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
After leaving NASA, he went to work for Boeing for the International Space Station. He was the company's deputy manager for the space shuttle program.
The NASA Space Flight medal and the Army Commendation medal were among the awards that were given to Clifford.
He became an advocate for people living with Parkinson's after his diagnosis. "An Astronaut's Secret" was a short documentary about his life with the disease.
In a 2015 interview with the Michael J. Fox Foundation, Clifford said that everyone withPD handles it differently. Don't let it affect your living. Life is good. Keep going, the sky's the limit.
He is survived by his wife, Nancy Elizabeth, and their two sons, Richard and Brandon.
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