American physician and surgeon; a scientist-astronaut selected by NASA for training in August 1967. Musgrave worked on the design and development of the Skylab space station and first flew on STS-6, the maiden voyage of Challenger, which launched on 4/04/1983.
Although he was born in Boston, Musgrave considers Lexington, Kentucky to be his hometown. He attended St. Mark’s School in Southborough, Massachusetts prior to graduating in 1953, when he promptly enlisted in the Marines. He went back to school some years later and earned a plethora of degrees, including a BS in mathematics and statistics from Syracuse in 1958, a MBA in operations analysis and computer programming from the University of California in 1959, a BA in chemistry from Marietta College in 1960, an MD from Columbia in 1964, an MS in physiology and biophysics from the University of Kentucky in 1966, and an MA in literature from the University of Houston in 1987.
During his time with the Marines, he served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Wasp as aviation electrician and crew chief. He returned stateside and took a position with Eastman Kodak as a mathematician. Prior to his selection by NASA, he was a researcher in cardiovascular and exercise physiology at the University of Kentucky, where he also did his surgical internship.
He served as backup science pilot for the first Skylab mission, Skylab 2, and from 1979-82, he was assigned to the Shuttle Avionics Laboratory where he tested computer software. He continued to perform surgery part-time at Denver General Hospital and worked as a part-time professor in physiology and biophysics at the University of Kentucky Medical Center. He has published 44 scientific papers and received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1992. He left NASA in 1997.
Musgrave is divorced and the father of six, Lorelei Lisa, Bradley Scott, Holly Kay, Christopher Todd, Jeffery Paul (deceased) and Lane Lynwood. In his spare time, he enjoys chess, gardening, parachuting, photography, reading, scuba diving and literary criticism.
Link to Wikipedia biography