Word: hauck
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Frederick H. Hauck, 47, mission commander. If any one man typifies the "right stuff" aboard Discovery, it is Hauck. "Rick's the ultimate straight shooter," says crew member Pinky Nelson. "He's the ideal commander." Hauck has flown on two previous shuttle missions. One, which he commanded, was the 1984 Discovery mission to retrieve two wayward satellites. He has not lost a sense of wonder about the shuttle: "It's kind of mystical being out there on the launchpad listening to the sounds. It seems like a breathing, alive machine." A graduate of Tufts University and a Navy combat pilot...
...flew 339 combat missions in Viet Nam, then became an Air Force weapons-system test pilot. He piloted the 1985 Discovery shuttle flight that deployed three communications satellites and repaired a fourth. The Coveys -- Dick, wife Kathleen and daughters Sarah, 14, and Amy, 12 -- often socialize with the Haucks outside work and enjoy a close relationship. Covey, who is in line for a shuttle command himself, snapped up Hauck's invitation to pilot the critical Discovery mission...
Discovery commander Rick Hauck promptly answered with a laconic "Roger go," bringing a smattering of applause and cheers that grew into a chorus near the two-minute mark, when the spacecraft successfully jettisoned its two spent solid rocket boosters. But experienced space observers did not relax until Discovery shut down its three main engines 6 1/2 minutes later, shucked off its external fuel tank, then slipped safely into orbit about 180 miles above the earth a half hour later. Declared elated space engineer John Kaltenbach: "This was the one that had to fly. It looks damn good. Oh, it just...
...certainly was. As the shuttle eased into orbit, mission commander Hauck felt only delight at the immediate tasks at hand. "We're looking forward to the next four days," he said. "We have a lot to do, and we're going to have a lot of fun doing it." Several hours later, astronauts Mike Lounge and David Hilmers, manipulating controls in the cabin, raised and tilted the TDRS package in the cargo bay, and activated springs that pushed it out of the open doors into space. After Hauck and pilot Dick Covey had maneuvered the shuttle to a safe...
...minute news conference with reporters gathered in a Mission Control auditorium, Hauck praised Discovery's performance, saying, "I'm not sure that we've had a mission that has been this trouble-free with an orbiter before...