Posted in Utah March 04, 2021 by

The First Ever Sitting U.S. Senator To Fly In Space Was From Utah And Everyone Will Remember His Flight

The Space Shuttle Program got its start in 1972, and 133 successful flights were conducted between 1977 and 2011 (manned flights began in 1981). One prominent Utahn made history on the Space Shuttle Discovery on April 12, 1985.

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Edwin Jacob "Jake" Garn was born in Richfield, Utah on October 12, 1932. The son of a World War II pilot, Garn also served as a pilot in the U.S. Navy and the Utah Air National Guard.
By NASA - [1] NASA, Public Domain/Wikimedia
He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1974, after serving as the Salt Lake City Mayor.

Senator Garn remembers hearing about the first manned space flight, achieved by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961. He was always enthralled with the idea of space travel, and asked NASA to fly aboard a space shuttle as early as 1981, while he was the head of the Senate appropriations subcommittee that oversaw NASA's funding.
On April 12, 1985, Senator Jake Garn got his wish: He flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery as part of the crew on flight STS-51-D. The Utah Senator was the first sitting U.S. Congressman to fly in space.
Public Domain/Wikimedia
Coincidentally, Senator Garn's flight was exactly 24 years after Yuri Gagarin took his flight.

The crew consisted of six men and one woman.
By NASA - https://archive.org/details/s85-28647, Public Domain/Wikimedia
Senator Garn joined the mission as a Payload Specialist. The rest of the crew included Commander Karol J. Bobko, Pilot Donald E. Williams, Mission Specialist 1 M. Rhea Seddon, Mission Specialist 2 S. David Griggs, Mission Specialist 3 Jeffrey A. Hoffman, and Payload Specialist 1 Charles D. Walker.
The Space Shuttle Discovery left its launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. It took off at 80,000 feet per minute, reaching orbit in just 8.5 minutes.
Stocktrek Images Collection via Getty Images
It was Discovery's fourth mission, and the 16th flight of NASA's Space Shuttle Program.
The mission lasted 6 days, 23 hours, and 55 minutes. During that time, Space Shuttle Discovery orbited Earth 110 times, traveling at 17,500 mph.
By NASA/Public Domain/Wikimedia
Senator Garn suffered horrible space sickness during the journey. He wasn't the only crew member to experience space sickness - Payload Specialist Charles D. Walker was also ill during the journey.
Space Shuttle Discovery returned to Earth on April 19, 1985. Today, you can visit the shuttle at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. It's located at Washington Dulles International Airport.
By Sanjay Acharya - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia

Do you remember Jake Garn’s space flight? We’d love to read your thoughts in our Facebook comments!

Utah’s Great Salt Lake is so large that you can see it from space! We wonder if Senator Garn got a good look at it during his mission.

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