C . Gordon Fullerton Charles Gordon Fullerton ( October 11 , 1936 – August 21 , 2013 ) was a United States Air Force colonel , a USAF and NASA astronaut , and a research pilot at NASA ' s Dryden Flight Research Facility , Edwards , California . His assignments included a variety of flight research and support activities piloting NASA ' s B - 52 launch aircraft , the Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft ( SCA ) , and other multi - engine and high performance aircraft . Fullerton , who logged more than 380 hours in space flight , was a NASA astronaut from September 1969 until November 1986 when he joined the research pilot office at Dryden . In July 1988 , he completed a 30 - year career with the U . S . Air Force and retired as a colonel . He continued in his position of NASA research pilot as a civilian . Fullerton and his wife and their two children lived in Lancaster , California . Biography . Early years . Born October 11 , 1936 , in Rochester , New York , Fullerton graduated from U . S . Grant High School , Portland , Oregon . He received Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology , Pasadena , California , in 1957 and 1958 , respectively . Air Force career . Fullerton entered the U . S . Air Force in July 1958 after working as a mechanical design engineer for Hughes Aircraft Company , Culver City , California . After primary and basic flight school , he was trained as an F - 86 interceptor pilot , and later became a B - 47 bomber pilot at Davis - Monthan Air Force Base , Arizona . In 1964 he was chosen to attend the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School ( now the Air Force Test Pilot School ) , Edwards Air Force Base , California . Upon graduation he was assigned as a test pilot with the Bomber Operations Division at Wright - Patterson Air Force Base , Ohio . In 1966 , Fullerton was selected for and served as a flight crew member for the Air Force Manned Orbiting Laboratory ( MOL ) program until its termination in 1969 . NASA career . Fullerton joined NASA in September 1969 after the cancellation of the MOL program . After assignment to the NASA Johnson Space Center as an astronaut , Fullerton served on the support crews for the Apollo 14 , 15 , 16 , and 17 lunar missions . In 1977 , Fullerton was assigned to one of the two two - man flight crews which piloted the Space Shuttle prototype " Enterprise " during the Approach and Landing Tests Program at Dryden that same year . Fullerton was the pilot on the eight - day STS - 3 Space Shuttle orbital flight test mission March 22 – 30 , 1982 . Launched from the Kennedy Space Center , Florida , the mission exposed the orbiter " Columbia " to extremes in thermal stress and tested the Remote Manipulator System used to grapple and maneuver payloads to orbit . STS - 3 landed at Northrup Strip , White Sands , New Mexico , because Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards AFB was wet due to heavy seasonal rains . Fullerton was commander of the STS - 51 - F " Spacelab 2 " mission , launched from Kennedy Space Center on July 29 , 1985 . This mission , with the orbiter " Challenger " , was the first pallet - only Spacelab mission and the first to operate the Spacelab Instrument Pointing System ( IPS ) . It carried 13 major experiments in the fields of astronomy , solar physics , ionospheric science , life science , and a super fluid helium experiment . The mission ended August 6 , 1985 , with a landing at Dryden . Research test pilot career . Fullerton served as project pilot on the NASA / Convair 990 aircraft which has been modified as a Landing Systems Research Aircraft to test space shuttle landing gear components . Additionally , Fullerton was also project pilot on F - 18 Systems Research Aircraft , a test bed to develop new flight control actuators , fiber optic control systems , and other advanced aircraft technology . As the project pilot on the Propulsion Controlled Aircraft program , he successfully landed an F - 15 with all control surfaces fixed , using only engine thrust modulation for control . The project continues with the goal of flight testing a similar system in an MD - 11 transport . In addition to these activities , Fullerton was a project pilot on a number of other research programs at Dryden . Among them were the C - 140 Jetstar Laminar Flow Control , F - 111 Mission Adaptive Wing , F - 14 Variable Sweep Flow Transition , space shuttle orbiter drag chute and F - 111 crew module parachute tests with the B - 52 , and X - 29 vortex flow control . As project pilot on the B - 52 launch aircraft , Fullerton was involved in tests to develop a new F - 111 crew module recovery system , and air launching the commercially - developed Pegasus space vehicle . Fullerton was one of two NASA pilots who flew the Russian - built Tu - 144LL supersonic aircraft used in a joint high speed research program . With over 16 , 000 hours of flying time , Fullerton piloted 135 different types of aircraft , including full qualification in the T - 33 , T - 34 , T - 37 , T - 39 , F - 86 , F - 101 , F - 106 , F - 111 , F - 14 , X - 29 , KC - 135 , C - 140 , and B - 47 . After joining Dryden as a research pilot , Fullerton piloted nearly all the research and support aircraft flown at the facility , including the T - 38 , F - 18 , F - 15 , B - 52 , NASA / Convair 990 , 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft , and the DC - 8 . Later years and death . Fullerton retired in 2007 . He suffered a stroke in 2009 and was cared for in a facility in Lancaster , California , where he died from complications on August 21 , 2013 , aged 76 .