page_title: Ronald M. Sega
section_title: Space flight experience
hierarchical_section_title: Ronald M. Sega / Career / NASA career / Space flight experience
caption_attribution_description: English: The NASA gallery provided the following description of the image: "The Wake Shield Facility (WSF) is a free-flying research and development facility that is designed to use the pure vacuum of space to conduct scientific research in the development of new materials. The thin film materials technology developed by the WSF could some day lead to applications such as faster electronics components for computers.
context_page_description: Ronald "Ron" Michael Sega is professor of systems engineering and Vice President for Energy and the Environment at the Colorado State University Research Foundation, a non-profit advocacy organization supporting CSU. He is also the Vice President and Enterprise Executive for Energy and Environment at The Ohio State University. From August 2005 to August 2007, he served as Under Secretary of the Air Force. He is a retired Major General in the United States Air Force and a former NASA astronaut. Sega was born in Cleveland, Ohio, he is of Slovene origin. He was married to fellow astronaut Bonnie J. Dunbar. He is now married to Ann Sega and they have two sons. He has lived in both Northfield, Ohio and Colorado Springs.
context_section_description: STS-60 was the first joint United States/Russian Space Shuttle mission. Launched on February 3, 1994, STS-60 was the second flight of the Space Habitation Module-2 (Spacehab-2), and the first flight of the Wake Shield Facility (WSF-1). During the 8-day flight, the crew of Discovery conducted a wide variety of biological, materials science, earth observation, and life science experiments. Sega was the flight engineer for ascent and entry on this mission, performed several experiments on orbit, and operated the robotic arm, berthing the Wake Shield onto its payload bay carrier on four separate occasions. Following 130 orbits of the Earth in 3,439,705 miles, STS-60 landed at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on February 11, 1994. With the completion of his first space flight, Sega logged 8 days, 7 hours, 9 minutes in space.
  STS-76, the third docking mission to the Russian space station Mir, launched at night on March 22, 1996, with a crew of six aboard Atlantis. Following rendezvous and docking with Mir, a NASA Astronaut transferred to Mir for a five-month stay to begin a continuous presence of U.S. astronauts aboard Mir for the next two years. Sega was the payload commander for this mission and lead on Biorack, a small multipurpose laboratory located in the Spacehab module carried in the Shuttle payload bay. Biorack was used to technology development, fundamental biology (research into plant and animal cellular function), and environment characterization. He was responsible for planning and on-orbit operations, including extensive transfer of logistics and science, including 4800 pounds of science and mission hardware, food, water and air to Mir, and returning over 1100 pounds of U.S. and ESA science and Russian hardware. Following 144 orbits of the Earth, Atlantis landed with a crew of five at Edwards Air Force Base in California on March 31, 1996. Mission duration was 9 days, 5 hours, 15 minutes.
caption: Sega was the flight engineer of STS-60, during which the Wake Shield Facility was deployed.
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