CHILTON WILL DEPART NASA TO CONTINUE AIR FORCE CAREER



July 17, 1998



James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
281/483-5111

<h4>Release: J98-30</h4> <h3>Chilton Will Depart NASA to Continue Air 
Force Career</h3> 

Veteran astronaut Kevin Chilton, recently selected for promotion to 
the rank of Brigadier General in the U.S. Air Force, will leave NASA 
this summer to continue his military career. Chilton, a veteran of 
three space flights, has overseen the operational planning for the 
International Space Station since 1996 as Deputy Program Manager for 
Operations.



Frank L. Culbertson, who has led NASA&rsquo;s Shuttle/Mir Program 
since August 1995, will be named Acting International Space Station 
Deputy Program Manager for Operations. Culbertson, a veteran of two 
space flights, has guided the Phase 1 Program through all but the 
first of the nine successful Shuttle-Mir docking missions to date and 
more than two years of continuous American presence aboard Russia's 
Mir Space Station.



"I would like to congratulate Colonel Chilton on his highly deserved 
promotion to Brigadier General. His distinguished service to NASA as 
an astronaut and Space Shuttle commander has enabled Kevin to provide 
critical operational and technical expertise to ISS operational 
planning. His leadership has been instrumental in our ability to 
begin on-orbit assembly this year and he will certainly be missed. We 
all wish him well in his next assignment," said Randy Brinkley, 
International Space Station Program Manager. "Having Frank 
Culbertson&rsquo;s Phase One leadership and management experience and 
expertise applied to the International Space Station is certainly 
appropriate as we enter what will be one of the most challenging and 
exciting times in the history of space flight &ndash; the assembly of 
the International Space Station in orbit. His leadership as the Phase 
1 program manager has been truly outstanding and all of us in the ISS 
Program look forward to his contributions and operational 
leadership."



A three-time Shuttle veteran, Chilton commanded STS-76, the third 
Space Shuttle docking mission to the Mir, aboard Atlantis in March 
1996. He served as pilot of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on its maiden 
voyage, STS-49 in May 1992, which included a record four spacewalks 
to retrieve, repair and deploy the INTELSAT communications satellite. 
He also served as pilot of Endeavour on STS-59 in April 1994, 
carrying the Space Radar Laboratory to map features on the Earth's 
surface. Selected as an astronaut in June 1987, Chilton has logged 
more than 704 hours in space.



Culbertson, a retired Navy Captain, commanded Discovery on shuttle 
mission STS-51 in September 1993, deploying the Advanced 
Communications Technology Satellite and deploying and retrieving an 
astronomy satellite. He served as pilot of Atlantis in November 1990 
on shuttle mission STS-38, a classified Department of 
Defense-dedicated mission. Selected as an astronaut in May 1984, 
Culbertson has logged more than 344 hours in space.

	
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