We are sad to belatedly report that the retired four-time astronaut, USAF Col. Steven Nagel, has passed away in August at the age of 67 after a battle with cancer. From being a former F-100 super Sabre pilot and eventual test pilot, Nagel joined the astronaut corps in 1979 and flew four times on the Space Shuttle. Once as a mission specialist on STS-51G, once as pilot on STS-61A, and twice as commander on STS-37 and STS-55.
Despite being a very accomplished and highly rated astronaut, Nagel became famous for one of his few mistakes. It was on STS-37 that the Shuttle Atlantis, under his command, landed a few hundred feet short of the official runway threshold at Edwards Air Force base in California.
Steven Nagel retired from the astronaut corps in 1995. and fully left NASA in 2011. We give our condolences to his family and friends.
