NAME:  William M. Shepherd (Captain, USN)
       NASA Astronaut
 
BIRTHPLACE AND DATE:  Born July 26, 1949, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, but
considers Babylon, New York his hometown.  His mother, Mrs. Barbara Shepherd,
resides in Bethesda, Maryland.  His father, Mr. George R. Shepherd, is
deceased.
 
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:  Blond hair; blue eyes; 5 feet 10 inches; 180 pounds.
 
EDUCATION:  Graduated from Arcadia High School, Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1967;
received a bachelor of science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the U.S.
Naval Academy in 1971, and the degrees of Ocean Engineer and master of science
in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in
1978.
 
MARITAL STATUS: Single.
 
RECREATIONAL INTERESTS: He enjoys sailing, swimming, and working in his garage.
 
ORGANIZATIONS: Member of the U.S. Naval Institute, and AIAA.
 
SPECIAL HONORS:  Awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, and the Joint Service
Commendation Medal.
 
EXPERIENCE:  Shepherd was graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1971.  He
completed a post-graduate program at MIT in 1978, and has served with the
Navy's Underwater Demolition Team Eleven, SEAL Teams ONE and TWO, and Special
Boat Unit TWENTY.
 
NASA EXPERIENCE:  Selected by NASA in May 1984.  He has flown two missions --
STS-27 in 1988, and STS-41 in 1990.
 
On his first flight, Shepherd was a mission specialist aboard the Orbiter
ATLANTIS on STS-27, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on
December 2, 1988.  The mission lasted 105 hours and carried Department of
Defense and secondary payloads.
 
More recently, he was a mission specialist on STS-41.  The five man crew
launched on October 6 aboard the Space Shuttle DISCOVERY and landed on October
10, 1990.  During 66 orbits of the earth, the STS-41 crew successfully deployed
the Ulysses spacecraft, starting it on a four year journey (via Jupiter) to
investigate the polar regions of the Sun, as well as conducting numerous other
middeck experiments.
 
With the completion of his second space mission, Shepherd has logged 203 hours
in space.
 
CURRENT ASSIGNMENT:  Shepherd is assigned as a mission specialist on the crew
of STS-52, a nine day mission scheduled for launch in the Fall of 1992 aboard
the Space Shuttle Columbia.  The mission will deploy the Laser Geodynamic
Satellite (LAGEOS) which will be used to measure movements of the earth's
crust.
 
AUGUST 1991