HUNTSVILLE, AL - The Association of Space Explorers received word from the family of Owen K. Garriott, who asked them to pass along the sad news that Skylab and Shuttle astronaut Owen Garriott has passed away at his home in Huntsville, Alabama. Garriott was 88.
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“Owen Garriott was a good friend and an incredible astronaut,” fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin tweeted. “I have a great sadness as I learn of his passing today. Godspeed Owen.”
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Dr. Owen K. Garriott, astronaut, was born in Enid in 1930 and graduated from Enid High School in 1948. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 1953 and a M.S. and Ph.D from Stanford University in Electrical Engineering in 1957 and 1960, respectively.
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In 1966 he completed one year U.S. Air Force Pilot Training Program, receiving qualification as a jet pilot. In 1965 he was one of the 6 Scientist-Astronauts selected by NASA.
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His first space flight, the Skylab 3 mission in 1973, set a new world record for duration of approximately 60 days, more than double the previous record. His second space flight was aboard Spacelab-1 in 1983, an international mission of 10 days aboard the space shuttle Columbia.
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Garriott operated the world's first Amateur Radio Station from space, W5LFL, which has since expanded into an important activity on dozens of shuttle flights, Space Station Mir and now the International Space Station, with scores of astronauts and cosmonauts participating.
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“I managed to do it in my off-duty hours, and it was a pleasure to get involved in it and to talk with people who are as interested in space as the 100,000 hams on the ground seemed to be,” he said in an interview published in the February 1984 edition of QST. “So, it was just a pleasant experience, the hamming in particular, all the way around.”
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Garriott, along with former wife Helen Walker Garriott, was co-founder of Leonardo's Children's Museum in Enid. Highway 412, formerly named Lahoma Rd., is named Owen K. Garriott Road, also in Enid.
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Dr. Owen K. Garriott Passes Away At Age 88
