Former Astronaut Featured at Jethawks First Moon Landing Tribute

Former NASA astronaut C. Gordon Fullerton will be the guest of honor and
throw the first pitch this Saturday, July 20, as the Lancaster JetHawks
baseball team commemorates the 33rd anniversary of the first landing on the
moon.

Fullerton, now a research pilot at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at
Edwards, flew on two space shuttle missions in the 1980s, co-piloted two
approach and landing tests of the prototype shuttle orbiter Enterprise, and
served on the support crew for the last four Apollo moon landing missions.

The "Walk on the Moon" tribute anniversary game will commemorate the landing
of the lunar module Eagle by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz"
Aldrin Jr. during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969.

The JetHawks will be taking on the Visalia Oaks for the 7:15 p.m. California
League contest at the Lancaster Municipal Stadium, also known as "The
Hangar." Tickets for this game are available by calling the JetHawks ticket
office at (661) 726-5400 or by visiting the team’s website at
www.jethawks.com.

A retired U.S. Air Force colonel, Fullerton has amassed more than 15,000
flight hours in more than 135 different types of aircraft during his career.

As an astronaut, Fullerton served on the support crews for the Apollo 14,
15, 16, and 17 lunar missions. In 1977, Fullerton was on one of two crews
that piloted the Space Shuttle prototype Enterprise during the Approach and
Landing Test Program at NASA Dryden. Fullerton was the pilot on the STS-3
Space Shuttle orbital flight test mission in 1982, and commanded the STS-51F
Spacelab 2 mission in 1985. He has logged 382 hours in space flight.

Since transferring to Dryden in 1986, Fullerton’s assignments have included
a variety of flight research and support activities piloting NASA’s B-52
launch aircraft, the 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, and other multi-engine
and high performance aircraft. He flew a series of development air launches
of the X-38 prototype Crew Return Vehicle and the first launch of the X-43A
Hyper-X vehicle.

Fullerton also flies Dryden’s DC-8 Airborne Science aircraft in support of
atmospheric physics, ground mapping and meteorology studies. He also was
project pilot on the Propulsion Controlled Aircraft program, during which he
successfully landed a modified F-15 fighter and an MD-11 transport with all
control surfaces neutralized, using only engine thrust adjustments for
control. Fullerton also evaluated the flying qualities of the Russian Tu-144
supersonic transport during two flights in 1998, one of only two non-Russian
pilots to fly that aircraft.

Fullerton will be available to sign autographs during the evening in a NASA
Dryden exhibit inside the baseball stadium.

Note to Editors:

A current photo of NASA research pilot Gordon Fullerton is available on the
Dryden Internet web site at
www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/photo/Pilots/HTML/EC02-0102-1.html.