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Michael J. Smith
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American astronaut (1945-1986)
OverviewAI-generated
Michael John Smith (1945–1986) was a United States naval officer, astronaut, and test pilot. Born in Beaufort, he served in the United States Navy and participated in the Vietnam War. He received his education from the United States Naval Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School. Smith was a member of NASA Astronaut Group 9 and worked for NASA. He held the military rank of podpolkovnik.
Smith received several awards, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, Congressional Space Medal of Honor, and NASA Distinguished Service Medal. He died on January 28, 1986, in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, which was an accidental death. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
As an author, Smith is credited with works such as *Changing Presidential Activity in Foreign Affairs* and *Investigating Earth Systems Oceans*. His other listed works include *My Queen of the Waves*, *Enduring Crown Commonwealth*, and *Captain Francis Crozier*.
Synthesized by Vinony from 32 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, Last.fm, Crossref, MusicBrainz, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Key facts
- Born
- Michael John Smith , ( 1945-04-30 ) April 30, 1945, Beaufort, North Carolina , U.S.
- Died
- January 28, 1986 (1986-01-28) (aged 40), North Atlantic Ocean
- Cause of death
- Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
- Resting place
- Arlington National Cemetery
- Education
- United States Naval Academy ( BS ) Naval Postgraduate School ( MS )
- Awards
- Distinguished Flying Cross Congressional Space Medal of Honor Air Medal
- Rank
- Captain , USN
- Selection
- NASA Group 9 (1980)
- Missions
- STS-51-L
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Part of
- NASA Astronaut Group 9
- Given name
- John
- Family name
- Smith
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Beaufort
- Place of death
- Cape Canaveral
- Occupation
- test pilot
- Educated at
- Naval Postgraduate School
- Employer
- NASA
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Conflict
- Vietnam War
- Military branch
- United States Navy
- Military rank
- podpolkovnik
- Image
- MichaelJSmith.jpeg
Show 10 more facts
- Commons category
- Michael J. Smith
- date of death
- 1986-01-28
- date of birth
- 1945-04-30
- manner of death
- accidental death
- cause of death
- Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
- name in native language
- Michael John Smith
- place of burial
- Arlington National Cemetery
- time in space
- 1.2166667
- member of the crew of
- STS-51-L
- P450
- STS-51-L
via Wikidata · CC0
~6 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Michael John Smith (April 30, 1945 – January 28, 1986), (Capt USN) was an American engineer and astronaut. He served as the pilot of the Space Shuttle Challenger when it was destroyed during the STS-51-L mission, breaking up 73 seconds into the flight, and at an altitude of 48,000 feet (14.6 km), killing all seven crew members. Smith's voice was the last one heard on the Challenger voice recorder.
During his Naval career, Smith flew 28 different types of civilian and military aircraft and logged 4,867 hours of flying time. Following the Challenger disaster, he was promoted posthumously to the rank of captain, and has had a chair named in his honor at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, California.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Michael J. Smith” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.