And Ron held dozens of voice QSO's with fellow hams all over the world. He had to wait almost three years to fly. After the Challenger put a hiatus on manned space flight. Later, Ron flew again aboard STS-67 aboard the Endeavor in March of 1995. Working from his home base at the Goddard Space Flight Center as an engineer scientist, WA4SIR is not an astronaut, he is a payload specialist.
Astronauts are pilots or mission specialists.
Ron handles a highly technical payload. So sophisticated that is calls for very special operation. May. And here is some good news for those of you wondering how to get to and from the Hamvention site once you get to Dayton. According to its planners, Hamvention has found a replacement for those costly hotel buses that have discontinued running. Instead they have arranged with a taxi cab company to have a number of cabs at Hara Arena along with a curbside starter to facilitate the operation.