Charles L . Veach Charles Lacy Veach ( September 18 , 1944 - October 3 , 1995 ) was a USAF fighter pilot and NASA astronaut . Personal data . Veach was born in Chicago , Illinois , but considered Honolulu , Hawaii , to be his hometown . Married to Alice Meigs Scott of Waycross , Georgia , he had two children . He enjoyed surfing , bicycling , reading and activities with his family . His parents , Mr . and Mrs . Marshall E . Veach , reside in Honolulu , Hawaii . He was also known as Lacy Veach . Education . Graduated from Punahou School , Honolulu , Hawaii , in 1962 ; received a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering management from the United States Air Force Academy in 1966 . Special honors . Distinguished Flying Cross with 2 Oak Leaf Cluster s , Air Medal with 13 Oak Leaf Clusters , Air Force Commendation Medal with 1 Oak Leaf Cluster , and Purple Heart . Experience . Veach was commissioned in the United States Air Force upon graduation from the United States Air Force Academy . He received his pilot wings at Moody Air Force Base , Georgia , in 1967 , and then attended fighter gunnery school at Luke Air Force Base , Arizona . Over the next 14 years , he served as a USAF fighter pilot , flying the F - 100 Super Sabre , the General Dynamics F - 111 , and the F - 105 Thunderchief , on assignments in the United States , Europe , and the Far East , including a 275 - mission combat tour in the Republic of Vietnam . In 1976 and 1977 , he was a member of the USAF Air Demonstration Squadron , the Thunderbirds , flying the T - 38 Talon . Veach left active duty in 1981 , but continued to fly fighters as an F - 16 Fighting Falcon pilot with the Texas Air National Guard . He had logged over 5 , 000 flying hours . His name still adorns the museum display F - 16 Fighting Falcon just inside the front gate of the Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base in Houston Texas . NASA experience . Veach came to work for NASA in January 1982 as an engineer and research pilot at the Johnson Space Center in Houston , Texas . His primary duty was as an instructor pilot in the Shuttle Training Aircraft , the highly modified Gulfstream II used to train astronaut pilots to land the Space Shuttle . Veach was selected as an astronaut candidate in May 1984 , and became an astronaut in June 1985 . He held a variety of technical assignments , and had flown as a mission specialist on two Space Shuttle missions , STS - 39 in 1991 and STS - 52 in 1992 . He had logged 436 . 3 hours in space . Most recently , Lacy had worked as the lead astronaut for the development and operation of robotics for the International Space Station . On STS - 39 , Veach was responsible for operating a group of instruments which included an ultraviolet astronomical camera , an x - ray telescope , and a liquid helium - cooled infrared telescope which performed landmark observations of the Earth ' s atmosphere and the Aurora Australis ( the Southern Lights ) . The 8 - day unclassified Department of Defense mission aboard the Orbiter Discovery launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 28 , 1991 , and landed at Kennedy on May 6 , 1991 . STS - 52 was a 10 - day mission aboard the Orbiter Columbia during which the crew successfully deployed the Laser Geodynamic Satellite ( LAGEOS ) , a joint Italian - American project . They also operated the first U . S . Microgravity Payload ( USMP ) with French and American experiments . Veach was the primary Remote Manipulator System ( RMS ) operator on the mission , supporting the initial flight tests of the Canadian - built Space Vision System ( SVS ) . STS - 52 launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 22 , 1992 , and landed at Kennedy on November 1 , 1992 . Lacy Veach died in Houston , Texas , on October 3 , 1995 , of cancer . He is interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu , Hawaii .