Jim Buchli
Sunday, October 5, 1997
For more than a decade, Jim Buchli was one of our space shuttle astronauts. But in the age of the International Space Station, he's taken a new, equally challenging role: Operations Manager for Boeing, prime contractor for the ISS. This aeronautical engineer, now charged with executing the design and deployment of humanity's most ambitious space venture, discusses the details here.
The interview was conducted by OMNI editor Pam Weintraub. You can read a transcript of it here, or learn more about Buchli's exploits, below.
 Wearing an extravehicular mobility unit (EMU), Buchli prepares for an underwater extravehicular activity (EVA) training session in the Johnson Space Center's Weightless Environment Training Facility. |
On his first flight, Buchli was a crew member on STS-51C, the first Space Shuttle Department of Defense mission, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on January 24, 1985 and landed after three days in orbit.
He then served on the crew of STS-61A (October 30 - Nov. 6, 1985). STS-61A, a West German D-1 Spacelab mission, was the first to carry eight crew members, the largest crew to fly in space, and was also the first in which payload activities were controlled from outside the United States. More than 75 scientific experiments were completed in the areas of physiological sciences, materials processing, biology, and navigation. Mission duration was 111 orbits.
 Mission Specialist Buchli, wearing navy blue flight suit coveralls and helmet, smiles behind his oxygen mask. |
More recently, he was a crew member on STS-48 (September 12-18, 1991). This was a five-day mission during which the crew deployed the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), designed to provide scientists with their first complete data set on the upper atmosphere's chemistry, winds and energy inputs. The crew also conducted numerous secondary experiments, ranging from growing protein crystals, to studying how fluids and structures react in weightlessness. Mission duration was 81 orbits. With the completion of his fourth mission, Buchli has logged over 490 hours in space.
Buchli has since retired from the U.S. Marine Corps and left NASA to accept the position of Manager, Station Systems Operations and Requirements with Boeing Defense and Space Group, Huntsville, Alabama. His current focus: The International Space Station.