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William Edgar Thornton (M.D.)

NASA Astronaut (former)

==Personal data==
Born in Faison, North Carolina, on April 14, 1929.
Married to the former Elizabeth Jennifer Fowler of
Hertfordshire, England. They have two sons.

==Education==
* Attended primary and secondary schools in
Faison, North Carolina
* 1952: Received a bachelor of science degree in
physics from the University of North Carolina
* 1963: Received a doctorate in medicine from the
University of North Carolina.

==Special honors==
* Recipient of the Air Force Legion of Merit
(1956)
* the NASA Exceptional Service Medal (1972)
* the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement
Medal (1974)
* the American Astronautical Society’s Melbourne
W. Boynton Award for 1975 (1977)
* two NASA Space Flight Medals (1983, 1985)
* the University of North Carolina Distinguished
Alumni Award (1983)
* the Aerospace Medical Association Randy Lovelace
Award (1984)
* the AIAA Jeffries Medical Research Award (1985)
* the Association of Military Surgeons of the
United States Kern Award (1986)
* the NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement
Award (1988).

==Experience==
Following graduation from the University of North
Carolina and having completed Air Force ROTC
training, Thornton served as officer-in-charge of
the Instrumentation Lab at the Flight Test Air
Proving Ground. He later became a consultant to
Air Proving Ground Command.

As chief engineer of the electronics division of
the Del Mar Engineering Labs at Los Angeles,
California|Los Angeles from 1956 to 1959, he also
organized and directed its Avionics Division. He
returned to the University of North Carolina
Medical School in 1959, graduated in 1963, and
completed internship training in 1964 at the
Wilford Hall USAF Hospital at Lackland Air Force
Base, San Antonio, Texas.

Dr. Thornton returned to active duty with the
United States Air Force and was then assigned to
the USAF Aerospace Medical Division, Brooks Air
Force Base, San Antonio, where he completed the
Primary Flight Surgeon’s training in 1964. It
was during his two-year tour of duty there that he
became involved in space medicine research and
subsequently applied and was selected for
astronaut training. Dr. Thornton developed and
designed the first mass measuring devices for
space, which remain in use today.

Dr. Thornton has logged over 2,500 hours pilot
flying time in jet aircraft, is currently a
Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of
Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch,
Galveston, Texas, and is an adjunct Professor at
the University of Houston-Clear Lake.

==NASA experience==
Dr. Thornton was selected as a scientist-astronaut
by NASA in August 1967. He completed the required
flight training at Reese Air Force Base, Texas.
Dr. Thornton was physician crew member on the
highly successful Skylab Medical Experiments
Altitude Test (SMEAT) -- a 56-day simulation of a
Skylab mission enabling crewmen to collect medical
experiments baseline data and evaluate equipment,
operations, and procedures. Dr. Thornton was also
the mission specialist on SMD III, a simulation of
a Spacelab life sciences mission.

Dr. Thornton was a member of the astronaut support
crew for the Skylab 2, Skylab 3|3, and Skylab 4|4
missions, and principal investigator for Skylab
experiments on mass measurement, anthropometric
measurements, hemodynamics, and human fluid shifts
and physical conditioning. He first documented the
shift and loss of fluid changes in body posture
size and shape, including increase in height and
the rapid loss of muscle strength and mass in
space flight.

As a member of the Astronaut Office Operations
Missions Development group, Dr. Thornton was
responsible for developing crew procedures and
techniques for deployable payloads, and for
maintenance of crew conditions in flight. He
developed advanced techniques for, and made
studies in, kinesiology and kinesimetry related to
space operations.

During Space Shuttle operations he continued
physiological investigations in the cardiovascular
and musculoskeletal and neurological areas. He
developed the Shuttle treadmill for in-flight
exercise and several other on-board devices. His
work concentrated on the space adaptation
syndrome, with relevant investigations on STS-4,
STS-5, STS-6, STS-7, and STS-8.

Dr. Thornton holds more than 35 issued patents
that range from military weapons systems through
the first real-time EKG computer analysis.
Space-related items include the first in-flight
mass measurement devices, shock and vibration
isolation systems, an improved waste collection
system, an improved lower body negative pressure
(LBNP) apparatus, and others.

A veteran of two space flights, Dr. Thornton has
logged over 313 hours in space. He served as a
mission specialist on STS-8 in 1983, and STS-51B
in 1985.

Dr. Thornton continued his work in space medicine
while awaiting his next flight opportunity. He
worked on problems relative to extending mission
durations in the Space Shuttle, in the Space
station, and in space exploration, and has
designed the necessary exercise and other hardware
to support such missions. He continued analysis
and publication of results from studies of
neurological adaptation, and the study of
neuromuscular inhibition following flight,
osteoporosis in space and on Earth, and postflight
orthostasis. He has completed designs for exercise
and other countermeasure equipment for the
Extended Duration Orbiter (EDO), and for Space
Station Freedom, including improved treadmills,
rowing machines, isotonic exercise devices, and a
bicycle. Much of this is currently scheduled for
flight.

Dr. Thornton retired from NASA effective May 31,
1994.

==Space flight experience==
STS-8 Challenger (August 30 to September 5, 1983).
This was the third flight for the Orbiter
Challenger and the first mission with a night
launch from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and a
night landing at Edwards Air Force Base,
California. During the flight Dr. Thornton made
almost continuous measurements and investigations
of adaptation of the human body to weightlessness,
especially of the nervous system and of the space
adaptation syndrome. This was a continuation of
his previous work in these areas. Much of the
equipment used was designed and developed by Dr.
Thornton. The mission was accomplished in 98
orbits of the Earth, traveling 2.2 million miles
in 145 hours, 8 minutes, 4 seconds.

STS-51B/Spacelab 3|Spacelab-3 Challenger (April 29
to May 6, 1985). The Spacelab-3 science mission
was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida,
and returned to land at Edwards Air Force Base,
California. During the 7-day flight, Dr. Thornton
was responsible for the first animal payload in
manned flight and other medical investigations.
The mission was accomplished in 110 orbits of the
Earth,traveling 2.9 million miles in 169 hours and
39 minutes.

MAY 1994
Source:http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/thorn
ton-w.html

NASA

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William Thornton (May 20, 1759 - 28 March, 1828)
was the original architect of the United States
Capitol.  Born on Jost Van Dyke in the British
Virgin Islands, Thornton received medical training
in Edinburgh, Scotland.  He emigrated to the
United States|United States of America in 1787.

http://www.aoc.gov/cc/capitol/models/model_t.cfm
Thornton's design for the Capitol had been
submitted after the close of a competition in
which 17 entries were found wanting.  His plan was
approved on July 25, 1793, with the award of $500
and a city lot in Washington, D.C..

Other notable designs by Thornton were the Library
Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the
Tayloe house or Octagon House in Washington, D.C.,
once headquarters of the American Institute of
Architects.

Thornton was also the first Superintendent of the
United States Patent Office from June 1, 1802
until his death in 1828.

William E. Thornton is also a now retired American
astronaut.