Roy Bridges Jr.
MS astronautics ’66
Born: 1943
Mission: STS-51F
Roy D. Bridges Jr. NASA Bio
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Roy Bridges Jr. piloted the space shuttle Challenger’s Spacelab-2 mission (STS-51F) in 1985, which was the first pallet-only Spacelab mission and the first mission to operate the Spacelab Instrument Pointing System. The shuttle carried 13 major experiments.
Before and after his astronaut experience (1980-86), Bridges served as an officer in the United States Air Force, logging 226 combat missions as a pilot in the Vietnam War and serving in numerous leadership and command positions. He retired from the Air Force as a major general in July 1996 following 31 years of service.
Bridges also directed NASA’s Langley Research Center from 2003-05, following six years as director at John F. Kennedy Space Center.
He enrolled at Purdue in 1965 after winning a competitive engineering graduate scholarship at the United States Air Force Academy. He and several other Air Force graduates – including roommate and fellow future astronaut John Blaha – participated in a cooperative astronautics master’s program between Purdue and the academy, which they completed in seven months.
Bridges received an honorary doctorate from Purdue in 2001.
