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Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Stafford, U.S. Air Force (Ret.)
Co-Chair
President, Stafford, Burke & Hecker Inc., technical consulting firm

A member of NASA's second astronaut group, Stafford was pilot of Gemini 6 and commanded Gemini 9, and orbited the moon as Commander of Apollo 10. He was the American Commander in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first rendezvous between American and Soviet spacecraft. Stafford became head of the astronaut group and was later named Deputy Director of Flight Crew Operations at the NASA Manned Spaceflight Center. He left NASA in 1975 to head the Air Force Test Flight Center and in 1978 became Deputy Chief of Staff, Research, Development and Acquisition, U.S. Air Force Headquarters. A consultant since 1980, Stafford is Chairman of the NASA Advisory Council Task Force on International Space Station Operational Readiness. He served as Defense Adviser to President Ronald Reagan and headed The Synthesis Group, which planned for the U.S. return to the moon and eventual Mars missions. He was Chairman of the NASA Advisory Council Task Force on Shuttle-Mir Rendezvous and Docking Missions. Among his awards, Stafford received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. He served on the National Research Council's Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, the Committee on NASA Scientific and Technological Program Reviews, and the Space Policy Advisory Council. Stafford is an graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.



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