Ron Parise, WA4SIR, 1951 – 2008

摘要

Dr. Ronald A. Parise, WA4SIR, passed away on May 9 after a long and courageous battle withcancer. His accomplishments were many, including space explorer, astrophysicist, avionics andsoftware expert, ham radio operator, pilot, inspirational speaker and motivator, student satellitementor, husband, father, and friend.Ron flew as a payload specialist on two space shuttle missions: STS-35 on the space shuttleColumbia in December 1990 and STS-67 on the space shuttle Endeavour in March 1995. Thesetwo missions, called Astro-1 & 2 respectively, carried out ultraviolet and X-ray astronomyobservations. He logged over 614 hours and 10.6 million miles in space. Ron and his crewmateson Astro-1 became the first astronomers to operate a telescope in space, observing 135 targetsincluding comet Levy, the planet Jupiter and supernova 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Hispersonal contributions to these two missions have provided scientists with an unprecedentedview of our universe, expanding our understanding of the birth, life and death of stars andgalaxies.