Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Manley Lanier "Sonny" Carter, Jr. (born August 15,
1947 in Macon, Georgia– April 5, 1991) was
an astronaut who flew on STS-33.  He was also
selected to fly on STS-42 at the time of his death
in the crash of Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight
2311 in Brunswick,
Georgiahttp://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20
001212X16773&key=1 while on a commercial airplane
travel for NASA. After his death, his name was
given to the http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/dx/dx12/
Sonny Carter Training Facility - Neutral Buoyancy
Laboratory, NASA's underwater astronaut training
facility, which he had developed training
techniques for. Carter was killed in the same
plane crash that took the life of former Texas
Senator John Tower.

Sonny Carter graduated from Lanier High School in
Macon, Georgia in 1965, then went on to receive a
bachelor of arts degree in chemistry from Emory
University in 1969 and a doctor of medicene degree
from Emory in 1973. In addition to his careers in
both the United States Navy|Navy and with NASA,
Carter was a professional soccer player from 1970
to 1973 with the Atlanta Chiefs of the NASL.

After completing medical school in 1973, Carter
completed internship in internal medicene at Grady
Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1974 he
entered the United States Navy|Navy and completed
flight surgeon school. After serving tours as a
flight surgeon with the 1st and 3rd Marine Air
Wings, he returned to flight training and was
designated a Naval Aviator in 1978. During the
following years, his naval career allowed him to
serve as a fighter pilot flying F-4 phantoms with
the United States Marine Corps|Marine Fighter
Attach Squadron 333 and to complete a 9-month
Mediterranean cruise aboard USS Forrestal. In 1982
he attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School,
graduating in 1984. During his life, he logged
3,000 flying hours and 160 carrier landings.

Selected by NASA in May, 1984, Carter became an
astronaut in June, 1985, qualified for assignment
as a mission specialist on future Space Shuttle
flight crews. Carter was assigned as
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Representative for
the Mission Development Branch of the Astronaut
Office when selected to the crew of STS-33. The
STS-33 crew launched, at night, from Kennedy Space
Center, Florida, on November 22, 1989, aboard the
Space Shuttle Discovery. The mission carried
Department of Defense payloads and other secondary
payloads. After 79 orbits of the earth, this
five-day mission concluded on November 27, 1989
with a hard surface landing on Runway 04 at
Edwards Air Force Base, California. With the
completion of his first mission, Carter logged 120
hours in space. 

At the time of his death, Captain Carter was
assigned as a mission specialist on the crew of
STS-42, the first International Microgravity
Laboratory (IML-1).

Sonny Carter Elementary School, in Macon, Georgia,
opened in 1993, was named for Manley Carter. The
school motto is: "To Challenge the Edge of the
Universe."

== External links ==
*
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/carter.html
NASA Biography

nl:Sonny Carter