page_title: Robert L. Stewart
section_title: NASA career
hierarchical_section_title: Robert L. Stewart / NASA career
caption_attribution_description: English: ID: DF-SC-84-10569, Service Depicted: Air Force - Astronaut Robert L. Stewart tests the nitrogen propelled, hand-controlled manned maneuvering unit (MMU) as part of an extravehicular activity (EVA) during Flight 41-B of the space shuttle Challenger. The MMU is a device which allows astronauts to move freely in space without a tether. Note that, although the metadata in this file indicates that the astronaut's name is "Robert C. Stewart", this is an error; his name is "Robert L. Stewart." NASA ID: S84-27033 National Archive: NN33300514
context_page_description: Robert Lee Stewart is a retired brigadier general of the United States Army and a former NASA astronaut.
context_section_description: Stewart became a NASA astronaut in August 1979. His technical duties in the Astronaut Office included: testing and evaluation of the entry flight control systems for STS-1 (the first Space Shuttle orbital mission), ascent abort procedures development, and payload coordination. He also served as support crewman for STS-4, and Ascent/Orbit CAPCOM for STS-5. He served as a mission specialist on STS-41-B in 1984 and STS-51-J in 1985, and logged a total of 289 hours in space, including approximately 12 hours of EVA operations.
  Although astronauts who had served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II (including Gus Grissom and Deke Slayton) had previously flown, Stewart was the first active-duty Army officer to make a spaceflight.
  While in training for his scheduled third flight (STS-61-K, ultimately cancelled as a result of the Challenger disaster) in 1986, Stewart was selected by the Army for promotion to Brigadier General. Upon accepting this promotion, Stewart was reassigned from NASA to be the Deputy Commanding General, U.S. Army Strategic Defense Command, in Huntsville, Alabama. In this capacity, Stewart managed research efforts in developing ballistic missile defense technology. He was reassigned as Director of Plans, United States Space Command, Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1989.
caption: Robert L. Stewart
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