James P. Bagian

Last updated

James Bagian
James Philipp Bagian.jpg
Born
James Philip Bagian

(1952-02-22) February 22, 1952 (age 72)
Education Drexel University (BS)
Thomas Jefferson University (MD)
Space career
NASA astronaut
Rank Colonel, USAF
Time in space
14d 1h 53m
Selection NASA Group 9 (1980)
Missions STS-29
STS-40
Mission insignia
Sts-29-patch.png Sts-40-patch.png

James Philip Bagian (born February 22, 1952), is an American physician, engineer, and former NASA astronaut of Armenian descent. During his career as an astronaut, he logged 337 hours of space-flight, over two missions, STS-29 (in 1989) and STS-40 (in 1991). After leaving NASA in 1995, Bagian was elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine. He was also elected as member into the National Academy of Engineering in 2000 for the integration of engineering and medical knowledge in applications to aerospace systems, environmental technology, and patient safety.

Contents

Bagian is currently the Director of the Center for Healthcare Engineering and Patient Safety at the University of Michigan.

Bagian is the only [1] [2] person of Armenian descent to have been in space. [3] [4] [5]

Education

Bagian graduated from Central High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1969; received a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Drexel University in 1973, graduating first in his class, and a Doctor of Medicine degree from Thomas Jefferson University in 1977, where he was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha.

Experience

Bagian worked as a process engineer for the 3M Company in Bristol, Pennsylvania, in 1973, and later as a mechanical engineer at the U.S. Naval Air Test Center at Patuxent River, Maryland, from 1976 to 1978, and at the same time, pursued studies for his medical degree. Upon graduating from Thomas Jefferson University in 1977, Bagian completed one year of general surgery residency with the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania. He subsequently went to work as a flight surgeon and research medical officer at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in 1978, while concurrently completing studies at the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine in San Antonio, Texas, where he graduated first in his flight surgeons class. He was completing a residency in anesthesiology at the University of Pennsylvania when notified of his selection by NASA for the astronaut candidate program. Bagian received his Professional Engineers Certification in 1986 and was board-certified in aerospace medicine by the American College of Preventive Medicine in 1987. Since 1981, Bagian has been active in the mountain rescue community and has served as a member of the Denali Medical Research Project on Denali. He has been a snow-and-ice rescue techniques instructor on Mount Hood during this period. Bagian is a colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and is the pararescue flight surgeon for the 939th Air Rescue Wing. He is a USAF-qualified freefall parachutist, holds a private pilot's license and has logged over 1,500 hours flying time in propeller and jet aircraft, helicopters, and gliders.

NASA experience

Bagian became a NASA astronaut in July 1980. He took part in both the planning and provision of emergency medical and rescue support for the first six Shuttle flights. He served as the Astronaut Office coordinator for Space Shuttle payload software and crew equipment, as well as supporting the development of a variety of payloads and participating in the verification of Space Shuttle flight software. In 1986, Bagian served as an investigator for the 51-L accident board. He was responsible for the development program and implementation of the pressure suit used for crew escape and various other crew survival equipment to be used on future Shuttle missions, and is in charge of Shuttle search and rescue planning and implementation for the Astronaut Office. Bagian was a member of the NASA Headquarters Research Animal Holding Facility Review Board. He has authored numerous scientific papers in the fields of human factors, environmental and aerospace medicine. A veteran of two space flights (STS-29 in 1989 and STS-40 in 1991), Bagian has logged over 337 hours in space. In 2003 Bagian served as the Chief Flight Surgeon and Medical Consultant for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board and currently serve as a member of the NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel.

STS-29

Bagian training to use the IMAX camera prior to STS-29. STS-29 Bagian IMAX training.jpg
Bagian training to use the IMAX camera prior to STS-29.

Bagian first flew on the crew of STS-29, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, aboard the Orbiter Discovery, on March 13, 1989. During this highly successful five-day mission, the crew deployed a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite and performed numerous secondary experiments, including a Space Station -heat pipe" radiator experiment, two student experiments, a protein crystal growth experiment, and a chromosome and plant cell division experiment. Bagian was the principal investigator and performed Detailed Supplementary Objective 470 which described, by the use of transcranial Doppler, the changes of cerebral blood flow and its relationship to Space Adaptation Syndrome (SAS) and Space Motion Sickness (SMS). Bagian was the first person to treat SMS with the drug Phenergan by intramuscular injection. This represented the first successful treatment regimen for SMS and has now been adopted by NASA as the standard of care for the control of SMS in Shuttle crews and is routinely used. In addition, the crew took over 3,000 photographs of the Earth using several types of cameras, including the IMAX 70 mm movie camera. Mission duration was 80 orbits and concluded with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on March 18, 1989. With the completion of this mission, he logged over 119 hours in space.

STS-40

Bagian served as the Lead Mission Specialist on the crew of STS-40 Spacelab Life Sciences, the first dedicated space and life sciences mission, which launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on June 5, 1991. SLS-1 was a nine-day mission during which crew members performed experiments that explored how the heart, blood vessels, lungs, kidneys, and hormone-secreting glands respond to microgravity, the causes of space sickness, and changes in muscles, bones, and cells which occur in humans during space flight. Other payloads included experiments designed to investigate materials science, plant biology and cosmic radiation. In addition to the scheduled payload activities on STS-40, Bagian was successful in personally devising and implementing repair procedures for malfunctioning experiment hardware which allowed all scheduled scientific objectives to be successfully accomplished. Following 146 orbits of the Earth, Columbia and her crew landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on June 14, 1991. Completion of this flight logged him an additional 218 hours in space.

Post-NASA

Bagian in 2017 James Bagian 2017 (2).jpg
Bagian in 2017

Bagian left NASA in 1995. He was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine. Bagian was the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Chief Patient Safety Officer, and Director of the VA National Center for Patient Safety.

Bagian was the first and founding director of the VA National Center for Patient Safety and as the Department of Veterans Affairs first Chief Patient Safety Officer where he developed numerous patient safety related tools and programs that have been adopted nationally and internationally.

Bagian is currently the Director of the Center for Healthcare Engineering and Patient Safety at the University of Michigan and is currently a professor at the University of Michigan with appointments in the Department of Anesthesia and the College of Engineering.

Bagian participated in the 2022 Starmus Festival held in Yerevan, Armenia in September 2022. [6]

Organizations

Bagian is a member of multiple organizations:

Special honors

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David M. Brown</span> American astronaut (1956–2003)

David McDowell Brown was a United States Navy captain and NASA astronaut. He died on his first spaceflight, when the Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-107) disintegrated during orbital reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. Brown became an astronaut in 1996 but had not served on a space mission prior to the Columbia disaster. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurel Clark</span> American astronaut (1961–2003)

Laurel Blair Clark was an American NASA astronaut, medical doctor, United States Navy captain, and Space Shuttle mission specialist. She died along with her six fellow crew members in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Clark was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Thirsk</span> Canadian engineer, astronaut and physician (born 1953)

Robert Brent "Bob" Thirsk, is a Canadian retired engineer and physician, and a former Canadian Space Agency astronaut. He holds the Canadian record for the most time spent in space. He became an officer of the Order of Canada (OC) in 2013 and was named to the Order of British Columbia (OBC) in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guion Bluford</span> First African-American in space (born 1942)

Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. is an American aerospace engineer, retired United States Air Force (USAF) officer and fighter pilot, and former NASA astronaut, in which capacity he became the first African American to go to space. While assigned to NASA, he remained a USAF officer rising to the rank of colonel. He participated in four Space Shuttle flights between 1983 and 1992. In 1983, as a member of the crew of the Orbiter Challenger on the mission STS-8, he became the first African American in space as well as the second black person in space, after Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">STS-47</span> 1992 American crewed spaceflight

STS-47 was NASA's 50th Space Shuttle mission of the program, as well as the second mission of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The mission mainly involved conducting experiments in life and material sciences inside Spacelab-J, a collaborative laboratory inside the shuttle's payload bay sponsored by NASA and the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). This mission carried Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese astronaut aboard the shuttle, Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman to go to space, and the only married couple to fly together on the shuttle, Mark C. Lee and Jan Davis, which had been against NASA policy prior to this mission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Davis</span> American engineer and astronaut (born 1953)

Nancy Jan Davis is a former American astronaut. A veteran of three space flights, Davis logged over 673 hours in space. She is now retired from NASA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dafydd Williams</span> Canadian astronaut, physician and public speaker (born 1954)

Dafydd Rhys "David" Williams is a Canadian physician, public speaker, author and retired CSA astronaut. Williams was a mission specialist on two Space Shuttle missions. His first spaceflight, STS-90 in 1998, was a 16-day mission aboard Space Shuttle Columbia dedicated to neuroscience research. His second flight, STS-118 in August 2007, was flown by Space Shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station. During that mission he performed three spacewalks, becoming the third Canadian to perform a spacewalk and setting a Canadian record for total number of spacewalks. These spacewalks combined for a total duration of 17 hours and 47 minutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman Thagard</span> American astronaut, scientist, and Marine Corps officer (born 1943)

Norman Earl Thagard is an American scientist and former U.S. Marine Corps officer and naval aviator and NASA astronaut. He is the first American to ride to space on board a Russian vehicle, and can be considered the first American cosmonaut. He did this on March 14, 1995, in the Soyuz TM-21 spacecraft for the Russian Mir-18 mission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William E. Thornton</span> American astronaut (1929–2021)

William Edgar Thornton was an American NASA astronaut. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from University of North Carolina and a doctorate in medicine, also from UNC. He flew on Challenger twice, the STS-8 and STS-51-B missions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhea Seddon</span> American astronaut and physician (born 1947)

Margaret Rhea Seddon is an American surgeon and retired NASA astronaut. After being selected as part of the first group of astronauts to include women in 1978, she flew on three Space Shuttle flights: as a mission specialist on STS-51-D and STS-40, and as a payload commander for STS-58, accumulating over 722 hours in space. On these flights, she built repair tools for a US Navy satellite and performed medical experiments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David M. Walker (astronaut)</span> American astronaut (1944–2001)

David Mathieson Walker, , was an American naval officer and aviator, fighter pilot, test pilot, and a former NASA astronaut. He flew aboard four Space Shuttle missions in the 1980s and 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen S. Baker</span> American physician and astronaut (born 1953)

Ellen Louise Shulman Baker is an American physician and a former NASA astronaut. Baker is a veteran of three shuttle flights and logged more than 686 hours in space. Baker served as Chief of the Education/Medical Branch of the NASA Astronaut Office until her retirement in 2011 after more than 30 years of service to NASA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bonnie J. Dunbar</span> American astronaut (born 1949)

Bonnie Jeanne Dunbar is an American engineer and retired NASA astronaut. She flew on five Space Shuttle missions between 1985 and 1998, including two dockings with the Mir space station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David C. Hilmers</span> American astronaut (born 1950)

David Carl Hilmers is a former NASA astronaut who flew four Space Shuttle missions. He was born in Clinton, Iowa, but considers DeWitt, Iowa, to be his hometown. He has two grown sons. His recreational interests include playing the piano, gardening, electronics, spending time with his family, and all types of sports. His parents are deceased. With five academic degrees, he is the second most formally educated U.S. astronaut, behind Story Musgrave with six.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven R. Nagel</span> American test pilot, astronaut and engineer (1946–2014)

Steven Ray Nagel, , was an American astronaut, aeronautical and mechanical engineer, test pilot, and a United States Air Force pilot. In total, he logged 723 hours in space. After NASA, he worked at the University of Missouri College of Engineering as an instructor in its Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jay C. Buckey</span> American astronaut and physician (born 1956)

Jay Clark Buckey, Jr. is an American physician and astronaut who flew aboard one Space Shuttle mission (STS-90) as a Payload Specialist. Buckey briefly ran for the Democratic nomination to challenge New Hampshire Senator John E. Sununu, a first term Republican, when he was up for re-election in 2008. Buckey withdrew from the race when former Governor Jeanne Shaheen entered the race.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James S. Voss</span> American astronaut and US Army colonel (born 1949)

James Shelton Voss is a retired United States Army colonel and NASA astronaut. During his time with NASA, Voss flew in space five times on board the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. He also served as deputy of Flight Operations for the Space Station Program Mission Integration and Operations Office. While participating in ISS Expedition 2, he and Susan Helms conducted an 8-hour and 56 minute spacewalk, the longest to date.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luca Urbani</span>

Luca Urbani is a former ASI astronaut and was assigned as an alternate payload specialist for mission STS-78.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Marshburn</span> American physician and NASA astronaut

Thomas Henry "Tom" Marshburn is an American physician and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of three spaceflights to the International Space Station and holds the record for the oldest person to perform a spacewalk at 61 years old.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Barratt (astronaut)</span> American aerospace medicine physician and astronaut born 1959

Michael Reed Barratt is an American physician and a NASA astronaut. Board certified in internal and aerospace medicine, he served as a flight surgeon for NASA before his selection as an astronaut and has played a role in developing NASA's space medicine programs for both the Shuttle–Mir program and International Space Station. His first spaceflight was a long-duration mission to the International Space Station as a flight engineer on the Expedition 19 and 20 crew. In March 2011, Barratt completed his second spaceflight as a crew member of STS-133. Barratt made a second long-duration mission to the International Space Station as a flight engineer on the Expedition 70, 71, and 72 crew and also served as the pilot on the SpaceX Crew-8 mission.

References

PD-icon.svg This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration .

  1. ""Universe and Armenia" photo-exhibition awakens space interest in Yerevan". Armenpress. April 11, 2014. ...only Armenian astronaut James Baghyan.
  2. "James Bagian: Armenian "greeting" from space". Noyan Tapan. January 23, 2013. Archived from the original on November 30, 2014. ...James Bagian is the world's only American astronaut of Armenian descent.
  3. Akopian, Aram (2001). Armenians and the World: Yesterday and Today. Yerevan: Noyan Tapan. p. 61. ISBN   9789993051299. James Bagian, an engineer and physician, is the first, but surely not the last, Armenian astronaut.
  4. Bakhchinyan, Artsvi (October 28, 2011). "Джеймс Багян: Счастлив, что мне довелось стать первым полетевшим в космос армянином [James Bagian". Yerkramas (in Russian). Archived from the original on November 30, 2014. Счастлив, что мне довелось слетать в космос и стать первым полетевшим в космос армянином....
  5. Ghazinyan, Aris (April 14, 2011). "History of Conquest: 'the Armenian space' – form aeronauts to astronauts". ArmeniaNow . Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
  6. "STARMUS Festival". www.starmus.com. Retrieved September 28, 2022.