Wis Astronaut inducted into Aviation Hall of Fame

MADISON, Wis (Civic Media) – Viroqua native, and NASA Astronaut, Mark Lee will be inducted into the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame.

While in high school, Mark became aware of and applied to the Air Force Academy. He received an appointment and headed off to Colorado Springs, Colorado in June of 1970. He majored in civil engineering and after graduation went to Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas. As one of the top graduates, he proceeded on to fighter lead-in training at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico and then F-4 upgrade training at Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix, Arizona. He demonstrated proficiency in weapons delivery and earned the Barry Goldwater Award as the top gun.

After a two and a half year stint in Okinawa, Japan Mark attended graduate school at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1980. After graduation, he was assigned to Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, Massachusetts, and became the operational support manager in the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) program office. This was supposed to be a four-year assignment, but 1 ½ years into the job the Air Force was short of pilots and pulled him back to the cockpit flying F-16s. After upgrade training at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, Mark was assigned to Hill Air Force Base in Utah.

In early 1984, NASA announced they were going to select another group of astronauts. Mark applied and was one of 17 selected out of 5,000 applicants. After one year of astronaut candidate training the class of 1984 was eligible for flight assignments. Mark was the first in his class to receive a space flight assignment. However, the Challenger accident in January 1986 curtailed all future flights. Once flights resumed Mark flew served as a Mission Specialist on Atlantis in May of 1989. The crew deployed the planetary probe Magellan which was responsible for mapping over 95% of the surface of Venus.

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