C. Gordon Fullerton, a NASA astronaut, research pilot and Air Force test pilot, died Wednesday after complications from a stroke in 2009. He was 76.
Fullerton began his flying career with the U.S. Air Force in 1958 after earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology. Initially trained as a fighter pilot, he later transitioned to multi-engine bombers and became a bomber operations test pilot after attending the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base. He then was assigned to the flight crew for the planned Air Force Manned Orbital Laboratory in 1966. Upon cancellation of that program, the Air Force assigned Fullerton to NASA’s astronaut corps in 1969.
He served on the support crews for the Apollo 14, 15, 16 and 17 lunar missions, and was later assigned to one of the two flight crews that piloted the space shuttle prototype Enterprise during the Approach and Landing Test program at Dryden. He then logged some 382 hours in space, when he flew on two early space shuttle missions, STS-3 on Columbia in 1982 and STS-51F on Challenger in 1985.
He joined the flight crew branch at NASA Dryden after leaving the astronaut corps in 1986. During his 21 years at Dryden, Fullerton was project pilot on a number of high-profile research efforts, including the Propulsion Controlled Aircraft, the high-speed tests of space shuttle landing gear components installed on a modified Convair 990 jetliner, the C-140 JetStar Laminar Flow Control, F-111 Mission Adaptive Wing, F-14 Variable Sweep Flow Transition, X-29 Vortex Flow Control, the Russian Tu-144LL supersonic transport evaluation and Dryden’s F-18 Systems Research Aircraft projects.
He also was project pilot for a number of research projects involving Dryden’s now-retired B-52B mothership, and piloted NASA’s DC-8 science laboratory on world-wide missions. Fullerton also served as associate director of Flight Operations and chief of the flight crew branch in later years. During his long career, Fullerton logged more than 16,000 flying hours. He retired from the Air Force in 1988 as a colonel after 30 years of active service. Fullerton was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2005, and the International Space Hall of Fame in 1982. His retirement from NASA was effective Dec. 31, 2007.
Funeral arrangements are pending at Halley-Olsen-Murphy Memorial Chapel, 44802 N. Date Ave., Lancaster. A funeral mass is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 24, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 565 West Kettering St., followed by a celebration of Fullerton’s life at NASA Dryden, 2825 E Avenue P, Palmdale, on Monday, Aug. 26, beginning at 10 a.m.
Fullerton is survived by his wife Marie and their two children.
NASA.gov contributed to this report.
