Editing Richard A. Searfoss (section)

==NASA career==
Selected by [[NASA]] in January 1990, Searfoss became an astronaut in July 1991. Initially assigned to the Astronaut Office Mission Support Branch, Searfoss was part of a team responsible for crew ingress/strap-in prior to launch and crew egress after landing. He was subsequently assigned to flight software verification in the [[Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory]] (SAIL). Additionally, he served as the Astronaut Office representative for both flight crew procedures and Shuttle computer software development. He also served as the Astronaut Office Vehicle System and Operations Branch Chief, leading a team of several astronauts and support engineers working on [[Space Shuttle]] and [[International Space Station]] systems development, rendezvous and landing/rollout operations, and advanced projects initiatives.

Searfoss served as [[STS-58]] pilot on the seven-person life science research mission aboard the [[Space Shuttle Columbia]], launching from the [[Kennedy Space Center]] on October 18, 1993, and landing at [[Edwards Air Force Base]] on November 1, 1993. The crew performed neurovestibular, cardiovascular, cardiopulmonary, metabolic, and musculoskeletal medical experiments on themselves and 48 rats, expanding our knowledge of human and animal physiology both on earth and in space flight. In addition, the crew performed 16 engineering tests aboard the Orbiter Columbia and 20 Extended Duration Orbiter Medical Project experiments. The mission was accomplished in 225 orbits of the Earth.

Searfoss flew his second mission as pilot of [[STS-76]] aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis, which launched at night on March 22, 1996. During this 9-day mission the STS-76 crew performed the third docking of an American spacecraft with the Russian space station [[Mir]]. In support of a joint U.S./Russian program, the crew transported to Mir nearly two tons of water, food, supplies, and scientific equipment, as well as U.S. Astronaut [[Shannon Lucid]] to begin her six-month stay in space. STS-76 included the first-ever spacewalk on a combined Space Shuttle-Space Station complex. The flight crew also conducted scientific investigations, including European Space Agency sponsored biology experiments, the [[Kidsat]] earth observations project, and several engineering flight tests. Completed in 145 orbits, STS-76 landed at [[Edwards Air Force Base]], California, on March 31, 1996.

Searfoss commanded a seven-person crew on the [[STS-90]] Neurolab mission which launched on April 17, 1998. During the 16-day [[Spacelab]] flight the crew served as both experiment subjects and operators for 26 individual life science experiments focusing on the effects of microgravity on the brain and nervous system. STS-90 was the last and most complex of the twenty-five Spacelab missions NASA has flown. Neurolab's scientific results will have broad applicability both in preparing for future long duration human space missions and in clinical applications on Earth. Completed in 256 orbits, STS-90 landed at [[Kennedy Space Center]], Florida, on May 3, 1998.

A veteran of three space flights, Searfoss logged over 39 days in space.  He retired from the Air Force and left NASA in 1998.  He became a commercial transport pilot for Southwest Airlines for a brief period and then returned to the space program by serving as the chief of safety for United Space Alliance at Kennedy Space Center.  For the next few years, he continued to work as a contract research test pilot at NASA's [[Dryden Flight Research Center]].  For the year and a half immediately prior to his death, he was a T-38 instructor pilot at Edwards Air Force Base.