Richard H. Truly: Pilot, Astronaut, Administrator

Few people in the air and space community touched as many aspects of what we do here at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum as did Richard H. Truly. His remarkable career in the military, in space, and as a leader blended together an array of experiences, having had the opportunity to impact programs and make decisions, the effects of which linger to this day. As we commemorate his life and contributions to the aerospace community, I wanted to reflect on some of the ways in which his career of public service can be seen across the collections of the Museum and in the work our curatorial and science researchers do as scholars.

Like many astronauts selected prior to the Space Shuttle program’s first dedicated group in 1978, Truly spent parts of his early career as a naval aviator and test pilot, quickly making his way from carrier landings in F-8 Crusaders to flying the latest experimental jets from the runways of Edwards Air Force Base. His ambitions were aimed much higher though, and Truly joined the Air Force’s military astronaut program (Manned Orbiting Laboratory, or MOL) in 1965. He and his colleagues transitioned from MOL to NASA when that program ended in 1969 as part of President Richard Nixon’s effort to scale back on defense spending. With NASA already well on its way to landing on the Moon, and the Skylab Orbital Workshop on deck, MOL became duplicative of those civilian efforts.

As a NASA astronaut, Dick Truly served in the same preparatory roles as other astronauts brought on board in Group 7 that year. He supported flight crews and provided an astronaut voice in mission control as a capsule communicator (CAPCOM) during the Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz Test Project missions.

Truly and the MOL astronauts waited patiently through the 1970s for an opportunity to play more significant roles in mission preparations. Testing for the Space Shuttle program began in earnest, at least publicly, with the roll-out of the atmospheric test orbiter, Enterprise, in a splashy ceremony in the fall of 1976. The teams of Fred Haise and Gordon Fullerton as the first crew, and Joe Engle and Dick Truly as the second crew began a variety of test flights using Enterprise in early 1977. Their task was a unique one, as these Approach and Landing Tests (ALT) would be the only test flights of the Space Shuttle program.

The flight profile of the program included unpowered landings on runways of the airplane-like orbiter, not the ocean landings of earlier U.S. human spaceflight programs. With fuels from an external tank used up for launch, flying an orbiter back from re-entry required a swift, steep approach without engine power. The two teams of pilots practiced managing Enterprise as a glider, both attached to the Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) and then in free-flight. The team of Engle and Truly carried out two of the five free-flights, landing on the same runways at Edwards Air Force Base that Truly knew so well from his time there as a test pilot. The astronauts and members of the ALT team were awarded the Iven C. Kincheloe Award from the Society of Experimental Test Pilots in 1978, marking one of two instances in which Truly’s name appears on an award in the National Air and Space Museum collection.

Richard Truly flew two orbital flights of the Space Shuttle program: STS-2 aboard Columbia as the pilot and STS-8 aboard Challenger as the commander. These critical early flights reflect the diversity of work intended for the orbiters. Engle and Truly, reunited on STS-2, were the first to test the Canadarm, a significant international collaboration for NASA on a vital piece of equipment. While shorted by almost half because of a faulty fuel cell, the mission put a second completed test launch of the program on the books.

Truly’s second flight, as commander of STS-8, included notable firsts with Guion Bluford becoming the first Black American in space, additional testing of the Canadarm, an Indian satellite deployment, and medical testing related to space adaptation syndrome. Unfortunately, STS-8 also proved later to be an early indicator of problems with rubber o-rings within the Space Transportation System’s solid rocket boosters. Damage to those o-rings would later mortally wound Challenger and the STS-51L crew.

The success of STS-8 gave Truly reason to move on from astronaut life and onto administrative work as the first commander of Naval Space Command. The loss of Challenger and its crew in early 1986 brought him back to NASA to oversee plans for returning to flight. Even prior to the final report of the Roger’s Commission review of the tragedy, Truly and his team acknowledged the critical changes needed to restart the space program, including booster redesign.

File URL

Truly’s leadership led to Discovery’s successful STS-26 mission in September 1988 and earned him the National Aeronautic Association’s Robert J. Collier Trophy, etching his name on this piece of the Smithsonian’s collection for his NASA service that returned the Space Shuttle program to flight. Truly’s profile was boosted again, this time right before a new president stepped into office. In the spring of 1989, George H.W. Bush nominated Truly as NASA Administrator, succeeding James Fletcher and becoming the first (and by no means last) former astronaut to serve as the agency’s leader. His time leading NASA was marked by the end of Voyager 1’s primary mission, promoting what would become the International Space Station, and extending the Space Shuttle program.

Truly’s distinguished career was characterized by service to his country as a naval aviator, test pilot, astronaut, and leader, and his contributions will always be remembered through aviation and space artifacts within the Smithsonian collections.