Tom Akers

Raised in Eminence MO, Tom earned his BS and MS degrees in Applied Mathematics from the University of MO-Rolla in 1973 and 1975 respectively.  He worked summers as a national park ranger at Alley Spring MO during his college years and upon graduation spent four years as the high school principal at Eminence.  Joining the USAF in 1979, he served as an air-to-air missile data analyst at Eglin AFB, FL until being selected for the USAF Test Pilot School flight test engineer program in 1982.  Graduating in 1983, he then worked four years on a variety of USAF weapon system development programs as a flight test engineer, or “backseater”, in T-38, F-4, and F-15 aircraft at Eglin AFB, FL.  Also a private pilot, he has accumulated over 2,500 hours in 25 different aircraft during his career. 

Selected by NASA for the astronaut program in 1987 as a mission specialist, he subsequently served in a variety of support positions.  He represented the astronaut office in shuttle software development and testing, and as a “Cape Crusader” at KSC during shuttle launches. He also worked with the EVA procedures and tool development teams for the shuttle and space station programs, served as Acting Deputy Director of Flight Crew Operations (FCOD), Deputy Director of Mission Operations (MOD) and as the Technical Assistant to the JSC Center Director.  

Tom’s first of four shuttle missions was STS-41, where he was the crewmember responsible for the deployment of the Ulysses spacecraft in October 1990.  His second mission was STS-49 in May 1992, the first flight of the new shuttle Endeavour.  He was the Intravehicular (IV) crewmember on the first two EVA attempts to capture the stranded Intelsat VI satellite, and then was the third man on the unplanned first and only three-person EVA that successfully captured Intelsat VI and installed a new rocket motor.  He then performed a second EVA to evaluate planned space station construction techniques.  His third mission was STS-61 in December 1993, the first Hubble (HST) repair mission.  He performed two EVAs and served as the IV crewmember for three more that resulted in the successful repair of the HST.  His fourth mission was STS-79 in September 1996.  This was a resupply and crew exchange flight to the Russian space station MIR.  As the Flight Engineer. he was responsible for the transfer of 3.5 tons of food, water and equipment to and from MIR.  He has accumulated over 800 hours in space and over 29 hours of space walking time.