Jay Apt

Jerome III "Jay" Apt
NASA Astronaut
Nationality	American
Status	Retired
Born	(1949-04-28) April 28, 1949 (age 67) Springfield, Massachusetts
Other occupation	Scientist
Alma mater	Harvard University (BA) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD)
Time in space	35d 07h 10m
Selection	1985 NASA Group
Missions	STS-37, STS-47, STS-59, STS-79
Mission insignia

Jerome III "Jay" Apt, Ph.D. (born April 28, 1949 in Massachusetts) is an American astronaut and professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Before he became an astronaut, Apt was a physicist who worked on the Pioneer Venus 1978 space probe project, and used visible light and infrared techniques to study the planets and moons of the solar system from ground-based observatories.

Apt graduated from Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1967. He went on to attend Harvard University, earning a Bachelor of Arts in physics in 1971. He then attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a Doctor of Philosophy in physics in 1976. From 1976 to 1980 he was a staff member of the Center for Earth & Planetary Physics at Harvard, and served as the Assistant Director of Harvard's Division of Applied Sciences from 1978 to 1980. In 1980 he joined the Earth and Space Sciences Division of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as a scientist doing planetary research; he was science manager of the optical facilities at JPL's Table Mountain Observatory. From 1982 through 1985 he was a flight controller responsible for Shuttle payload operations at NASA's Johnson Space Center. In 1985 he was selected as an astronaut candidate, and qualified to become an astronaut after a year of training. He has over 5,000 hours piloting aircraft, has flown on four space missions and has logged over 847 hours in space.

In 1991, Apt flew on the STS-37 mission aboard shuttle Atlantis. He made two spacewalks with Jerry Ross, manually deploying the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory's radio antenna when it failed to do so automatically; on the next day their second spacewalk tested hardware later used on the International Space Station. During the second Extra Vehicular Activity the palm-bar in Apt's right glove punctured the suit. Apt's hand conformed to the puncture, filling the hole before any noticeable depressurization could occur. Apt was unaware of the puncture until the glove was examined after the mission. Despite being partially exposed to vacuum he only sustained a minor scar. In 1992, Apt flew on STS-47 aboard shuttle Endeavour as the flight engineer, and commander of one of the two shifts in this round-the-clock mission. In 1994, Apt was again a shift commander of the first Space Radar Laboratory mission, STS-59 aboard shuttle Endeavour. This lab studied the Earth. In 1996, Apt flew on STS-79 aboard shuttle Atlantis and visited the Russian Mir space station.