Don Lind: Mormon Astronaut
Don Leslie Lind was a space physicist and former NASA astronaut. He was also a professor of physics and astronomy.
Lind was born on May 18, 1930, in Midvale, Utah. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Utah. He attended the United States Navy Officer Candidate School where he became a naval aviator. He served four years on active duty in San Diego and aboard the carrier USS Hancock. He received his Wings of Gold in 1957 and held the rank of Commander in the Naval Reserve. He logged more than 4,500 hours as a pilot, primarily in high-performance jet aircraft.
Because of his naval assignment to take high-altitude photo emulsions of cosmic rays for the University of California at Berkeley, he was accepted at the university for graduate studies and earned his PhD in high-energy nuclear physics in 1964. He later did postdoctoral study at the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska.
Lind worked at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley doing research in pion-nucleon scattering. Beginning in 1964, Lind worked as a space physicist for NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center. His work included experiments to determine the properties of particles in the earth’s magnetosphere and in interplanetary space.
In 1966, Lind was selected as an astronaut. He played a major role in developing the equipment and procedures used on the Apollo missions to the moon. Instead of going to the moon himself, Lind worked on planning the lunar surface operations for the astronauts who did. He tested the spacesuits, tools and science packages that the Apollo moonwalkers would use and deploy. "I don't say this boasting, but I knew more about what Neil [Armstrong] and Buzz [Aldrin] were supposed to do on the first mission and Pete [Conrad] and Al [Bean] were supposed to do on the second mission than they did," said Lind.[1]
He served as the backup science pilot for the Skylab 3 and Skylab 4 missions and as a member of the rescue crew for all of the Skylab missions. He waited nineteen years for his first spaceflight aboard the space shuttle Challenger on the Spacelab 3 mission (STS-51-B, the first operational Spacelab mission), where he served as payload commander. Leaving from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 29, 1985, he completed 110 orbits of the earth and traveled just shy of three million miles. The shuttle landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California on May 6, 1985. One of the mission’s experiments was developed by Lind—to take unique three-dimensional video recordings of the earth’s aurora. "So this experiment cost NASA $36, and it's the cheapest experiment that has ever gone into space," Lind said with a laugh. "We claimed that we could do more science per dollar per pound than anybody else in the space program." He also said, "We found out that there is a different component to the mechanism that creates the aurora, involving microwaves, that was not understood before. So the theorists had to add one more element in the equation for the creation of the aurora light."[2]
The crew also investigated crystal growth, drop dynamics leading to containerless material processing, atmospheric trace gas spectroscopy, solar and planetary atmospheric simulation, cosmic rays, laboratory animals and human medical monitoring.
He also conducted an experiment aboard the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) satellite, called the Interstellar Gas Experiment. Collectors in this experiment entrapped one of the first samples of matter from outside the solar system, particles of the interstellar medium moving between the stars.
He was awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal following his flight on Challenger and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal. At the end of his twenty-two-year career with NASA, he joined the faculty of Utah State University in 1986, where he taught physics and astrophysics. He retired in 1995. He earlier resigned from the Navy with the rank of commander in 1969.
Lind was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served as a missionary in New England. After his flight into space, he spoke in General Conference about his experience, including holding his own sacrament service.[3] He served as a counselor in two mission presidencies and a counselor in the Portland Oregon Temple presidency. He and his wife, Kathleen, are the parents of seven children. Together they served as public affairs missionaries for the Church in the Europe West Area and as temple missionaries in the Nauvoo Temple. They also collaborated to publish a book, Don Lind, Mormon Astronaut with Deseret Book. He gave numerous missionary firesides and spoke at many youth conferences.
Lind passed away on August 30, 2022, at the age of 92. His wife preceded him in death on June 12, 2022.
