Staff report
Posted : Wednesday Oct 24, 2007 5:41:51 EDT
When NASA launched the space shuttle Discovery today, it did so with a Marine “behind the wheel.”
Marine Corps Col. George D. Zamka is making his first spaceflight.
Liftoff of the seven-member crew was scheduled for 11:38 a.m. Tuesday from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., according to an Army press release.
The mission will deliver an Italian-built connecting module to the station.
According to a NASA biography, Zamka graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1984. He trained on the A-6E Intruder at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash., and was assigned to Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 242 at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, Calif., where he was a Squadron Weapons and Tactics instructor. In 1990, he trained as an F/A-18 pilot and was then assigned to Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 121. Zamka flew 66 combat missions during Operation Desert Storm. In 1993, he was assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marines at Camp Pendleton, Calif., as a forward air controller. In 1994, he graduated from the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, later serving as an F/A-18 Hornet test pilot and operations officer.
In 1998, he returned to VMFA (AW)-121 and deployed to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan.
Two other service members are onboard the shuttle. Recently retired Air Force Col. Pamela A. Melroy is commanding the mission and Army Col. Douglas H. Wheelock is serving as mission specialist.
10-31-2007, 10:18 AM
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