Who Was Paul Weitz? NASA Skylab, Challenger Astronaut Passes Away

One of NASA’s pioneering astronauts and former deputy director of the Johnson Space Center, Paul Weitz, died Monday at the age of 85. NASA posted about the loss on its Twitter account, “We’re saddened by the loss of retired astronaut Paul Weitz who lived on Skylab & commanded 1st flight of Challenger,” read the tweet.

Weitz was in naval squadrons before he was chosen to become an astronaut in 1966 along with other famed astronauts like Fred Haise and John Swigert. In the photo below, Weitz is the fourth man standing from the left.

During his time with NASA he completed more than 7,700 hours of flying time, 6,400 of which were in jet aircraft. Many of those hours came from his time spent in the first manned mission on the Skylab orbiting Earth in 1973. The crew spend 28 days in the lab, with a total of 672 hours and 49 minutes, to break the world record for longest single mission, according to NASA.

The above photo shows Weitz in the background with his crew member Charles Conrad Jr., onboard the Skylab craft. They were preparing to eat a meal when the photo was taken. When the crew first launched to the Skylab it took them five orbits to rendezvous with the craft and then they had to complete repairs before it was in full operation.

While on board the crew did experiments and demonstrations like the one shows in the photo above where they are preparing to demonstrate weightlessness. They were preparing to run around the compartment. During their time they completed solar astronomy, medical studies and student experiments all within 404 orbits. They also completed three walks outside of the lab.

Ten years later Weitz returned to space on the maiden voyage of the Challenger craft that NASA used to orbit Earth. During this time the crew including Weitz completed experiments and tested materials and systems for future spacewalks and trips. The mission lasted 120 hours and then the Challenger shuttle returned to Earth where it landed on the runway at Edwards Air Force Base.

After his career as an astronaut, Weitz went on to become the Deputy Director of the Johnson Space Center where he retired from in 1994, according to NASA. Weitz was diagnosed with a type of blood cancer called myelodysplastic syndrome, NPR reported.