USASMDC:
The initial astronaut selection criteria issued by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration required jet pilot experience for all applicants. As a result, Army personnel were not eligible for astronaut duty. Although the criteria later changed to allow scientist astronauts, it was not until 1991 that two Army officers would serve together aboard the Space Shuttle.
On Nov. 24, 1991, Lt. Col. James Voss and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Thomas Hennen, two members of a six person crew, began their seven day mission aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis, marking the first time that two Army personnel had flown aboard the same shuttle flight. STS-44 also marks another significant first as Hennen was the first, and remains the only, warrant officer to fly in space.
STS-44 was the ninth dedicated Department of Defense shuttle flight. On the first day, the crew addressed the primary mission launching a 5,200 pound Defense Support Program or DSP satellite, with an attached Inertial Upper Stage. Part of the Air Force’s satellite early warning system, the DSP was designed to detect and report on real-time missile launches, space launches and nuclear detonations.
Despite a curtailed flight due to a malfunctioning Inertial Measurement Unit, the crew was able to complete most of the scientific and engineering experiments. As identified by NASA, these included sensor calibrations for the Air Force Maui Optical system and a variety of efforts to monitor, measure and document cosmic radiation (“energy loss spectra, neutron fluxes and induced radioactivity”) and gamma rays.
