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Wang, Taylor Gun-Jin

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Wang Credit: www.spacefacts.de

Status: Inactive; Active 1983-1985. Born: 1940-06-16. Spaceflights: 1 . Total time in space: 7.01 days. Birth Place: Chinese.

Educated UCLA.

Official NASA Biography as of June 2016:Taylor G. Wang
Payload Specialist

PERSONAL DATA: Born June 16, 1940, in Mainland China. He is a Physicist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, and is a U.S. citizen. He is married, and has two sons.

EDUCATION: Received a bachelor of science degree in physics in 1967, a master of science degree in physics in 1968, and a doctorate in physics in 1971, from the University of California at Los Angeles.

ORGANIZATIONS: Member, American Physical Society, Materials Research Society, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Sigma Xi, and a Fellow in the Acoustical Society of America.

EXPERIENCE: After completing his doctorate, Dr. Wang joined the California Institute of Technology Jet propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in 1972, as a senior scientist. He is currently Program Manager for Materials Processing in Space. At JPL he was responsible for the inception and development of containerless processing science and technology research. He is the Principal Investigator (PI) on the Spacelab 3 mission NASA Drop Dynamics (DDM) experiments, PI on the NASA SPAR Flight Experiment #77-18 "Dynamics of Liquid Bubble," PI on the NASA SPAR Flight Experiment #76-20 "Containerless Processing Technology," and PI on the Department of Energy Experiment "Spherical Shell Technology." Dr. Wang has been conducting precursor drop dynamics experiments for the DDM in ground-based laboratories employing acoustic levitation systems, neutral buoyancy systems and drop towers, and in the near weightless environment provided by JSC's KC-135 airplane flights and SPAR rockets. These flights have helped to define the experimental parameters and procedures in the DDM experiments to be performed on Spacelab 3. He is the inventor of the acoustic levitation and manipulation chamber for the DDM and is the author of 70 articles in open literature and 20 U.S. patents.

SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: Dr. Wang flew on STS-51B Challenger (April 29-May 6, 1985). STS-51B/Spacelab-3 was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and returned to land at Edwards Air Force Base, California. It was the first operational Spacelab mission. The seven-man crew aboard Challenger conducted investigations in crystal growth, drop dynamics leading to containerless material processing, atmospheric trace gas spectroscopy, solar and planetary atmospheric simulation, cosmic rays, laboratory animals and human medical monitoring. At mission conclusion, Dr. Wang had traveled over 2.9 million miles in 110 Earth orbits, and had logged over 168 hours in space.

MAY 1985

This is the only version available from NASA. Updates must be sought direct from the above named individual.

Official Biography

NAME: Dr. Taylor G. Wang

BIRTHPLACE AND DATE: Dr. Wang was born on June 16, 1940, in Shanghai, China. He later moved to Taipei, Taiwan, and then attended college in the United States at UCLA. He became a citizen of the United States in 1975.

EDUCATION: University of California, Los Angeles: Ph.D. Physics 1971; M.S. Physics 1968; B.S. Physics 1967.

EXPERIENCE: Following graduation from UCLA, Dr. Wang was at the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1972 to 1988.

In June of 1983, Dr. Wang was selected by NASA to train as an astronaut-scientist for Spacelab-3, a research facility flown in the cargo bay of the space shuttle. In 1985, Dr. Wang flew aboard the Challenger as part of a seven member crew on the successful STS-51 mission (April 29 - May 5). During the flight, Dr. Wang studied the dynamic behavior of rotating spheroids in zero gravity in an experimental facility which he designed called the Drop Dynamics Module (DDM).

Dr. Wang was then the Principal Investigator for research projects involving drop and bubble dynamics, collision and coalescence of drops, charged drop dynamics, containerless science, and encapsulation of living cells. One of Dr. Wang's experiments was flown during the summer of 1992 (June 25 - July 8) as part of the first shuttle mission dedicated solely to microgravity studies, the United States Microgravity Laboratory 1 (USML-1). Another experiment was flown aboard USML-2 during the fall of 1995 (October 20 - November 4).

Dr. Wang was the holder of over 20 US patents and the author of approximately 180 articles in open literature.

• Birth of Dr Taylor Gun-Jin Wang - . Nation: China, USA. Related Persons: Wang. American physicist payload specialist astronaut 1983-1985. 1 spaceflight, 7.0 days in space. Flew to orbit on STS-51B (1985)..

• STS-51-B - . Call Sign: Challenger. Crew: Gregory, Lind, Overmyer, Thagard, Thornton, Bill, van den Berg, Lodewijk, Wang. Payload: Challenger F07 / SL 3 MPESS. Mass: 14,245 kg (31,404 lb). Nation: USA. Related Persons: Gregory, Lind, Overmyer, Thagard, Thornton, Bill, van den Berg, Lodewijk, Wang. Agency: NASA Houston. Program: STS. Class: Manned. Type: Manned spaceplane. Flight: STS-51-B. Spacecraft Bus: Shuttle. Spacecraft: Challenger. Duration: 7.01 days. Decay Date: 1985-05-06 . USAF Sat Cat: 15665 . COSPAR: 1985-034A. Apogee: 353 km (219 mi). Perigee: 346 km (214 mi). Inclination: 57.00 deg. Period: 91.50 min.

  Manned seven crew. Deployed Nusat; carried Spacelab 3. Payloads: Spacelab-3 experiments, habitable Spacelab and mission peculiar experiment support structure. The experiments represented a total of five different disciplines: materials processing in space, environmental observa-tions, life science, astrophysics, and technology experiments. Two getaway specials (GAS). The flight crew was split into gold and silver shifts working 12-hour days during the flight.

• Landing of STS-51-B - . Return Crew: Gregory, Lind, Overmyer, Thagard, Thornton, Bill, van den Berg, Lodewijk, Wang. Nation: USA. Related Persons: Gregory, Lind, Overmyer, Thagard, Thornton, Bill, van den Berg, Lodewijk, Wang. Program: Spacelab. Flight: STS-51-B. STS-51-B landed at 16:13 GMT. .