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Mission Crew

The STS-52 Space Shuttle in-flight crew was made up of six astronauts: a Commander, a Pilot, three Mission Specialists and one Payload Specialist. In addition, there was also one Alternate Payload specialist who trained with the crew before the launch and who would have replaced the Payload Specialist in case he would have been unable to fly. The crew worked together as a flight team, with each astronaut having different roles and responsibilities to perform during the mission.

Although the NASA orbiter crew—the Commander, the Pilot and the three Mission Specialists—had the operation of the shuttle as their primary responsibility, they also participated in operating payload systems. The set of Canadian scientific experiments (CANEX-2) was conducted by the Canadian payload specialist Dr. Steve MacLean. These experiments were a follow-up to the CANEX set which were flown on mission 41-G with Dr. Marc Garneau in 1984. Also, the Canadarm was in use during this flight and was operated by one of NASA's Mission Specialists.

Dr. MacLean is a native of Ottawa, Ontario. A member of the Canadian Astronaut Program since 1983, Dr. MacLean holds bachelor and doctorate degrees in physics from York University. Mr. Bjarni Tryggvason of Vancouver, was the alternate Payload Specialist for the STS-52 mission. Like Dr. MacLean, he was also a co-investigator in the Canadian Space Vision System experiment on this flight.