NAME:  Richard (Dick) N. Richards (Captain, USN)
       NASA Astronaut
 
BIRTHPLACE AND DATE:  Born August 24, 1946, in Key West, Florida, but
considers St Louis, Missouri, to be his hometown.  His mother, Mrs.
Marjorie Richards, resides in St Louis.
 
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:  Red hair, blue eyes; 5 feet 8 inches; 160
pounds.
 
EDUCATION:  Graduated from Riverview Gardens High School in St Louis,
Missouri, in 1964; received a bachelor of science degree in chemical
engineering from the University of Missouri in 1969, and a master of
science in aeronautical systems from the University of West Florida in
1970.
 
MARITAL STATUS:  Married to the former Lois Hollabaugh of Amarillo,
Texas.
 
RECREATIONAL INTERESTS:  He enjoys skiing, running, and racquetball.
 
ORGANIZATIONS:  Member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots; Tau
Beta Pi, Engineering Honorary; and Lambda Chi Alpha, Social
Fraternity.
 
SPECIAL HONORS:  National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service
Medal, Distinguished Graduate of U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, and
Naval Air Test Center Test Pilot of the Year for 1980, and the NASA
Space Flight Medal.
 
EXPERIENCE:  Richards was commissioned an ensign in the United States
Navy upon graduating from the University of Missouri in 1969 and was
designated a naval aviator in August of the following year.  From 1970
to 1973, he flew support missions in the A-4 Skyhawk and F-4 Phantom
airplanes while assigned to Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron
Thirty-Three at Norfolk Naval Air Station, Virginia.  He subsequently
reported to Fighter Squadron 103 and deployed to the North Atlantic
and Mediterranean aboard USS America (CV-66) and USS Saratoga (CV-61),
flying F-4 airplanes.  Selected for test pilot training, he reported
to the United States Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River,
Maryland, in 1976.  A tour in the Naval Air Test Center's Carrier
Systems Branch and F/A-18A Program Office of the Strike Aircraft Test
Directorate followed test pilot school graduation.  Over the next
3-1/2 years, Richards served as project test pilot for automatic
carrier landing systems development work in F-4 and A-7 aircraft and
also conducted approach/landing/catapult flying qualities and catapult
minimum endspeed performance testing of a prototype "slatted" F-4S
airplane.  As carrier suitability project officer for the F/A-18A
Hornet airplane, he made the first shipboard catapults and arrested
landings during Initial Sea Trials of the F/A-18A onboard the USS
AMERICA in 1979.  He was reassigned to Fighter Squadron 33 in May 1980
and was en route to that assignment when notified of his selection as
an astronaut candidate.
 
Flight experience has included over 4,400 hours in 16 different types
of airplanes.  He has also completed more than 400 landings on board
various aircraft carriers.
 
NASA EXPERIENCE:  Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in May
1980, Richards became an astronaut in August 1981.  Richards has flown
twice, on STS-28 (August 8-13, 1989), and on STS-41 (October 6-10,
1990) -- and has logged a total of 219 hours, 10 minutes, 13 seconds
in space.
 
On his first space flight, Richards was pilot on the crew of STS-28
which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on August 8, 1989.
The mission carried Department of Defense payloads and a number of
secondary payloads.  After 80 orbits of the earth, this five-day
mission concluded with a dry lakebed landing on Runway 17 at Edwards
Air Force Base, California, on August 13, 1989.  Mission duration was
121 hours 9 seconds.
 
Slightly more than one year later, Richards commanded the crew of
STS-41. The five-man crew launched aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery
on October 6 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and landed at Edwards
Air Force Base, California, on October 10, 1990.  During 66 orbits of
the Earth, the STS-41 crew successfully deployed the Ulysses
spacecraft, starting this interplanetary probe on its four-year
journey, via Jupiter, to investigate the polar regions of the Sun;
operated the Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet instrument (SSBUV)
to map atmospheric ozone levels; activated a controlled "fire in
space" experiment called the Solid Surface Combustion Experiment
(SSCE); and conducted numerous other middeck experiments involving
radiation measurements, polymer membrane production and microgravity
effects on plants.
 
More recently, Richards was assigned as commander of STS-50, scheduled
for launch aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in June 1992.  STS-50
will be the first flight of the United States Microgravity
Laboratory.  Over a two-week period, the STS-50 flight crew will
conduct a wide variety of experiments relating to materials processing
in a microgravity environment.
 
APRIL 1992