The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

seconds, 5,000 times better than the Chandra X-Ray
Observatory. It has been identified in NASA’s Office of
Space Science Strategic Plan as a potential mission
beyond 2007 but remains at the stage of early concept
definition.
McAuliffe, S. Christa (Corrigan) (1948–1986)
A high school teacher at Concord High School, New
Hampshire, who was selected as the primary candidate
for the NASA Teacher in Space Project, from more than
10,000 applicants, on July 19, 1985. She was assigned as a
payload specialist on Space Shuttle mission STS 51-L,
which was launched on January 28, 1986, and had
planned to teach two lessons from orbit. However, she
died along with the rest of the seven-member crew when
the spacecraft exploded a little over a minute after liftoff
(see Challenger disaster). Her backup for the mission,
Barbara Morgan, is expected to make her inaugural flight
in 2004.
McCandless, Bruce, II (1937–)
An American astronaut who became the first human to
conduct an untethered extravehicular activity (EVA) in
space. Selected by NASA as one of 19 new astronauts in
April 1966, McCandless was appointed as a member of
the astronaut support crew for the Apollo 14 mission
and as backup pilot for Skylab 2. He was a coinvestigator
on the M-509 astronaut maneuvering unit
experiment flown during the Skylab Program, collaborated
on the development of the Manned Maneuvering
Unit (MMU) used during Space Shuttle EVAs, and has
been responsible for crew inputs to the development of
hardware and procedures for the Inertial Upper Stage,
the Hubble Space Telescope, the Solar Maximum
Repair Mission, and the International Space Station
program. McCandless was a mission specialist on the
tenth Shuttle flight (STS 41-B), on February 3, 1984, during
which the MMU and the Manipulator Foot Restraint
were tested in space for the first time. McCandless made
free flights on each of the two MMUs carried onboard
and took part in other activities during two spectacular
EVAs. The eight-day orbital flight of Challenger culminated
in the first landing on the runway at the Kennedy
Space Center on February 11, 1984. More recently,
McCandless was a mission specialist on the crew of STS-
31, launched on April 24, 1990. After leaving NASA, he
joined the staff of Martin Marietta Astronautics Company,
in Denver, Colorado.
McDermot, Murtagh (eighteenth century)
A pseudonymous Irish writer who, in his tale A Trip to the
Moon (1728), gave one of the first descriptions of a space
cannon. His protagonist is whisked to the Moon by a
MDS (Mission Demonstration Satellite) 269
whirlwind after the manner of Lucian’s hero. There he
meets the friendly Selenites, who help him build the
means by which he can return. “We already know,” says
the lunar traveler, “the height of the Moon’s atmosphere,
and know how gunpowder will raise a ball of any weight
to any height. Now I intend to place myself in the middle
of ten wooden vessels, placed one within another,
with the outermost strongly hooped with iron, to prevent
its breaking. This I will place over 7,000 barrels of powder,
which I know will raise me to the top of the [Moon’s]
atmosphere ...but before I blow myself up, I’ll provide
myself with a large pair of wings, which I will fasten to my
arms...by the help of which I will fly down to the
earth.” It would be another 137 years before Verne’s characters
used an even larger explosion to blast themselves
on a lunar excursion.
McDivitt, James A. (1929–)
An American astronaut who served as command pilot of
Gemini 4 and commander of Apollo 9. A career Air
Force officer, retiring as a brigadier general, McDivitt was
chosen as a NASA astronaut in the second group
selected, in 1962. After his two spaceflights, he went on
to manage the Apollo Spacecraft Program at the Johnson
Space Center from September 1969 to August 1972. He
then resigned from NASA and the Air Force and took on
a variety of management positions in business, including
senior vice president of Government and International
Operations at Rockwell International.
McDonnell Douglas
An American aerospace company formed from the 1967
merger of McDonnell Aircraft Corporation and Douglas
Aircraft. Both Douglas Aircraft, founded in 1928 by
Donald Willie Douglas (1892–1981), and McDonnell
Aircraft, founded in 1939 by James Smith McDonnell
(1899–1980), made important contributions to the U.S.
space program. Douglas built the F5D Skylancer prototype
used in the development of the Boeing X-20 Dyna-
Soar, developed the Thor missile (precursor of the
Delta), and built the third stage of the Saturn V. Douglas
was chosen to build the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft.
Following the merger of the two companies, McDonnell
Douglas was contracted to convert one of its Saturn V
third stages into the Skylab space station. In 1997,
McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing.
MDS (Mission Demonstration Satellite)
A 450-kg Japanese satellite designed to evaluate the onorbit
performance of a variety of technologies, including
testing the radiation resistance of some commercial semiconductor
devices and new solar cells and the effectiveness
in space of a new type of battery, a solid-state data