Lounge

Personal data:

Birthdate:  28 Jun 1946 Birthplace:  Denver / Colorado Marital status:  married Children:  three Selection date:  19.05.1980 Selection group:   Job:  MSP Status:  Ret. 20.06.1991 Date of death:  01 Mar 2011 Age:   Reason of death:  complications from liver cancer

Spaceflights:

STS-51L - 1985

STS-26 - 1988

STS-35 - 1990

Additional information:

• Personel:
  John Michael Lounge was born June 28, 1946, in Denver, Colorado, but considered Burlington, Colorado to be his hometown. He graduated from Burlington High School in 1964, then received a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1969 and a Master of Science degree in astrogeophysics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1970. Lounge was an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
• Military career:
  Lounge entered on active duty with the United States Navy following graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy and spent the next nine years in a variety of assignments. He completed Naval flight officer training at Pensacola, Florida, went on to advanced training as a radar intercept officer in the F-4J Phantom II, and subsequently reported to Fighter Squadron 142 based at Naval Air Station Miramar, California. While with VF-142, he completed a nine-month Southeast Asia cruise aboard USS Enterprise (participating in 99 combat missions) and a seven-month Mediterranean cruise aboard USS America. In 1974, he returned to the U.S. Naval Academy as an instructor in the Physics Department. Lounge transferred to the Navy Space Project Office in Washington, D.C., in 1976, for a two-year tour as a staff project office. He resigned his regular Navy commission in 1978.
• NASA career:
  Lounge was employed at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center beginning in July 1978. During this time, he worked as lead engineer for Space Shuttle-launched satellites, and also served as a member of the Skylab Reentry Flight Control Team. He completed these assignments while with the Payload Operations Division.
  Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1980, he completed a one-year training and evaluation period, and became an astronaut in August 1981. He served as a member of the launch support team at Kennedy Space Center for the STS-1, STS-2, and STS-3 missions. Following his first flight, he was assigned to the first mission to carry the Centaur (cryogenically fueled) upper stage (STS-61F). After the mission was canceled, he participated in Space Station design development. From 1989 through 1991, Lounge served as Chief of the Space Station Support Office, representing astronaut interests in Space Station design and operation planning.
• hobbies: Jogging, chess, tennis, squash, flying, golf, blue grass guitar, later Vicepresident Spacehab Company.