William George "Borneo" Gregory (born May 14, 1957) is an American retired NASA

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

and United States Air Force

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

Early life and education

Gregory was born in Lockport, New York, into an Albanian American family and baptised at the

Albanian Orthodox Church The Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania ( sq, Kisha Ortodokse Autoqefale e Shqipërisë), commonly known as the Albanian Orthodox Church or the Orthodox Church of Albania, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It declared its autoce ...

of St. Elia. He graduated from

Lockport High School Lockport City High School (also LHS) is a comprehensive New York public high school located on Lincoln Avenue in Lockport, east of the city of Niagara Falls in the Lockport City School District, serving ninth to twelfth grade students. It is ...

in 1975. Gregory is an Eagle Scout. He then attended the United States Air Force Academy, where he graduated with a degree in engineering sciences in 1979. After this, he went to Columbia University to get a master's degree in engineering mechanics (1980), and

Troy University Troy University is a public university in Troy, Alabama. It was founded in 1887 as Troy State Normal School within the Alabama State University System, and is now the flagship university of the Troy University System. Troy University is accredi ...

to get another master's in management (1984). He is also a member of the USAF Academy Association of Graduates.

Career

Between 1981 and 1986, Gregory served as an operational fighter pilot flying the D and F models of the F-111. In this capacity, he served as an instructor pilot at RAF Lakenheath, UK, and Cannon Air Force Base (AFB), New Mexico. He attended the USAF Test Pilot School in 1987. Between 1988 and 1990 Gregory served as a test pilot at Edwards AFB flying the F-4, A-7D, and all five models of the F-15. Having flown in excess of 40 types of aircraft, Gregory has accumulated over 5,000 hours of flight time.

NASA career

Selected by NASA in January 1990, Gregory became an astronaut in July 1991. Gregory's technical assignments included: Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL); astronaut office representative for Landing/Rollout, T-38 Flying Safety; Kennedy Space Center Astronaut Support Personnel (ASP); spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM) in mission control; astronaut office representative for rendezvous and proximity operations; and Spacecraft Operations Branch Chief. He flew on STS-67 (1995) and has logged 400 hours in space. Gregory retired from the Air Force and left NASA in the Summer of 1999. He served as Vice President of Business Development for Qwaltec, Inc. in Tempe, Arizona, and is currently an airline pilot for a U.S. based cargo carrier. Gregory served as the STS-67 pilot on the seven-person astronomical research mission aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Launching from the Kennedy Space Center on March 2, 1995, and landing at Edwards AFB on March 18, 1995, the crew established a new mission duration record of 16 days, 15 hours, 8 minutes and 46 seconds, while completing 262 orbits and traveling nearly seven million miles. This second flight of the ASTRO telescope primary payload also included numerous secondary payloads.

References

External links

Spacefacts biography of William G. Gregory
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gregory, William G. 1957 births Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Columbia University alumni Living people People from Lockport, New York United States Air Force Academy alumni United States Air Force officers U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School alumni United States Air Force astronauts American people of Albanian descent Space Shuttle program astronauts