Terry Hart ʼ68 Hʼ88 Pʼ27, former NASA astronaut and teaching full professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics.
Former NASA astronaut and U.S. Air Force fighter pilot Terry Hart ʼ68 Hʼ88 Pʼ27 joined Lehighʼs faculty in 2004 and recently founded the universityʼs masterʼs in aerospace engineering program.
Hart, teaching full professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics, flew aboard STS 41-C Challenger, NASAʼs 11th Space Shuttle mission, launched from Kennedy Space Center in April 1984. During the mission, the crew logged 168 hours in orbit and became the first astronauts to repair a satellite from the shuttle. Hart also helped complete the shuttle programʼs first rendezvous mission and operated the Remote Manipulator System that retrieved the Solar Maximum Satellite for repairs.
More than four decades later, Hart continues to share his expertise and appeared on CNN, CBS News and NewsNation during coverage of the Artemis II lunar flyby. His experience as a former astronaut and aerospace expert helps connect Lehighʼs history in human spaceflight to a new generation of alumni helping shape the future of space exploration.
“[Exploration] is what makes us human, curiosity, wondering why things are the way they are,ˮ Hart said. “When historians look back on this time, they might conclude that the best thing that came out of the space program was that sense of oneness that people have when they see how perishable the Earth is. We have to take good care of the planet, and we have to take good care of each other.ˮ
Stories by Katie Clarke and Skye Cruz
