1937-

American engineer and astronaut who had a highly decorated career with the U.S. Air Force and NASA that included being part of the three-man crew of the first Space Shuttle mission (1981). Crippen became a NASA astronaut in 1969 and served on the support crews of the Skylab 2, 3, and 4 missions in 1973 before flying aboard the Space Shuttle on STS-1 (1981), STS-7 (1983), STS-41-C (1984), and STS-41-G (1984). He logged over 565 cumulative hours of space flight.