Jack Robert Lousma (born February 29, 1936) is an Americanastronaut,aeronautical engineer, retiredUnited States Marine Corps officer, formernaval aviator,NASAastronaut, and politician. He was a member of the second crew,Skylab-3, on theSkylabspace station in 1973. In 1982, he commandedSTS-3, the thirdSpace Shuttle mission. Lousma was inducted into theUnited States Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1997. He is the last living crew member of both of his spaceflights.

Jack Lousma
Lousma in 1971
Born	Jack Robert Lousma (1936-02-29)February 29, 1936 (age 89) Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.
Education	University of Michigan (BS) Naval Postgraduate School (MS)
Spouse	Gratia Kay ​ (m. 1956)​
Children	4
Awards	NASA Distinguished Service Medal
Space career
NASA astronaut
Rank	Colonel,USMC
Time in space	67d 11h 13m
Selection	NASA Group 5 (1966)
TotalEVAs	2
Total EVA time	11h 1m
Missions	Skylab-3 STS-3
Mission insignia
Retirement	October 1, 1983

Lousma later was theRepublican Party nominee for a seat in theUnited States Senate fromMichigan in1984, losing to incumbentCarl Levin, who won his second of six terms.

Lousma was born inGrand Rapids, Michigan, on February 29, 1936.^[1] He is of Dutch (Frisian) descent.^[2] His father's name was spelled Louwsma, but he kept the 'w' off of his son's birth certificate to make the name easier to spell.^[3] He graduated from Angell Elementary School,Tappan Middle School, andPioneer High School inAnn Arbor, Michigan in 1954.^[4] Lousma was aBoy Scout and earned the rank ofTenderfoot Scout.^[5]

Lousma received aBachelor of Science degree inaeronautical engineering from theUniversity of Michigan in 1959.^[6] He played on thefootball team as a backupquarterback until an elbow injury ended his career.^[2] He earned aMaster of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the U.S.Naval Postgraduate School in 1965.^[7]

Lousma became aUnited States Marine Corps officer in 1959, and he received hisaviator wings in 1960 after completing training at theNaval Air Training Command. He was then assigned toVMA-224,2nd Marine Aircraft Wing (2nd MAW), as an attack pilot, and he later served with VMA-224,1st Marine Air Wing, atMarine Corps Air Station Iwakuni,Japan. He was a reconnaissance pilot withVMCJ-2, 2nd MAW, atMarine Corps Air Station Cherry Point,North Carolina, before being assigned to theManned Spacecraft Center inHouston,Texas.^[7]

He has logged 7,000 hours of flight time; including 700 hours ingeneral aviation aircraft, 1,619 hours in space, 4,500 hours injet aircraft, and 240 hours inhelicopters.^[8]

Lousma was one of the 19 astronauts selected inNASA Astronaut Group 5 in April 1966.^[9] He served as a member of the astronaut support crews for theApollo 9,10, and13 missions.^[2] He was theCAPCOM recipient of the "Houston, we've had a problem" message fromApollo 13.^[10] He was a potential candidate to serve as the lunar module pilot forApollo 20, which was cancelled due to budget cuts.^[11] He was the pilot for Skylab-3 from July 28 to September 25, 1973, and was commander on STS-3, from March 22 until March 30, 1982, logging a total of over 1,619 hours in space.^[12]

Lousma also spent 11 hours on twospacewalks outside the Skylab space station. He served as backup docking module pilot of the United States flight crew for theApollo-Soyuz Test Project mission, which was completed successfully in July 1975.^[2]

The crew on this 59½ day flight includedAlan Bean (spacecraft commander), Lousma (pilot), andOwen K. Garriott, who acted as a science-pilot. The crew installed six replacement rategyroscopes used forattitude control of the spacecraft and a twin-polesunshade used forthermal control, and they repaired nine major experiment or operational equipment items. Skylab-3 accomplished all its mission goals while completing 858 revolutions of theEarth, and traveling some 39,300,000 km (24,400,000 mi) in orbit. They devoted 305 man-hours to extensive solar observations from above the atmosphere, which included viewing two majorsolar flares and numerous smaller flares andcoronal transients. Also acquired and returned to Earth were 16,000 photographs and 29 km (18 mi) ofmagnetic tape documenting Earth resources observations. The crew completed 333 medical experiment performances and obtained valuable data on the effects of extendedweightlessness on humans. Skylab-3 ended with aPacific Oceansplashdown and recovery byUSS New Orleans.^[8]

Lousma was originally selected as the pilot of the two-man crew ofSTS-2, alongside commanderFred Haise. This was a planned mission scheduled to launch in mid-1979, which was intended to use theTeleoperator Retrieval System to boost the orbit of Skylab, to allow for the space station's potential further use. This mission was eventually scrubbed, owing to the delays in getting the Shuttle system ready for flight.^[13] As a result, following Haise's decision to leave NASA, Lousma was named as commander of STS-3.

STS-3, the third orbital test flight of Space ShuttleColumbia, launched from theKennedy Space Center,Florida, on March 22, 1982, into a 290 km (180 mi) circular orbit above the Earth. Lousma was the spacecraft commander andC. Gordon Fullerton was the pilot on this eight-day mission. Major flight test objectives included exposingColumbia to extremes in thermal stress and the first use of the 15 m (49 ft)Remote Manipulator System (RMS) to grapple and maneuver aPayload in space. The crew also operated several scientific experiments in the orbiter's cabin and on the OSS-1 pallet in the payload bay.Columbia responded favorably to the thermal tests and was found to be better than expected as a scientific platform. The crew accomplished almost all the mission objectives assigned, and after a one-day delay due to bad weather, landed on the lake bed atWhite Sands, New Mexico, on March 30, 1982, the only shuttle flight to land there.Columbia traveled 5,500,000 km (3,400,000 mi) during 129.9 orbits and mission duration was 192 hours, 4 minutes, 49 seconds. Lousma left NASA on October 1, 1983, and retired from the Marine Corps on November 1, 1983.^[14]

A Republican, Lousma lost the 1984 United States Senate election in Michigan against incumbent Carl Levin, receiving 47% of the vote.^[15] The astronaut-politician survived a bitter primary fight against former Republican congressmanJim Dunn to capture the nomination with 63% of the vote.Ronald Reagan's landslide re-election was a boon to Lousma, but he was hurt late in the campaign when video surfaced of him telling a group of Japanese auto manufacturers that his family owned aToyota car.^[16]

Lousma and Gratia Kay were married in 1956. They have four children. A long-time resident of Scio Township, near Ann Arbor, Michigan, he moved with his wife toTexas in September 2013.^[4]

Lousma was awarded theJohnson Space Center Certificate of Commendation (1970);^[17] theNASA Distinguished Service Medal (1973);^[17] presented theNavy Distinguished Service Medal^[17] andNavy Astronaut Wings (1974),^[17] the City of Chicago Gold Medal (1974),^[18] the Marine Corps Aviation Association's Exceptional Achievement Award (1974),^[8] theFédération Aéronautique Internationale awarded him theV. M. Komarov Diploma for 1973,^[8] theAIAAOctave Chanute Award for 1975,^[19] theAAS Flight Achievement Award for 1974; inducted into a secondNASA Distinguished Service Medal (1982),^[8] theDepartment of Defense Distinguished Service Medal (1982),^[17]NCAA Silver Anniversary Award (1983).^[8]

The three Skylab astronaut crews were awarded the 1973Robert J. Collier Trophy "For proving beyond question the value of man in future explorations of space and the production of data of benefit to all the people on Earth".^[20][21]Gerald P. Carr accepted the 1975Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy fromPresident Ford, awarded to the Skylab astronauts.^[22]

Lousma was inducted with Fullerton into theInternational Space Hall of Fame during a ceremony with the governor of New Mexico in 1982 for their involvement in the STS-3 mission.^[23] The governor also presented them with the International Space Hall of Fame's Pioneer Award, and were the second group to receive this award.^[24] He was inducted the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame in 1989.^[25] He was one of 24 Apollo astronauts who were inducted into theU.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1997.^[26]

He was presented an honorary doctorate of astronautical science from theUniversity of Michigan in 1973,^[27] an honoraryD.Sc. fromHope College in 1982,^[28] an honorary D.Sc. inbusiness administration fromCleary College in 1986, and an honorary doctorate fromSterling College in 1988.^[10]

Lousma has a closed-end street (Lousma Drive) named after him inWyoming, Michigan (suburb of Grand Rapids) that begins west off ofRoger B. Chaffee Memorial Blvd just south of 32nd Street SE, in an industrial park area.

• The Astronaut Monument
• 1984 United States Senate election in Michigan

• Astronautix biography of Jack R. Lousma
• Spacefacts biography of Jack R. Lousma
• Jack R. Lousma atIMDb
• Lousma at SpaceactsArchived September 24, 2015, at theWayback Machine
• Lousma at Encyclopedia of Science
• Appearances onC-SPAN