James P. Bagian

Did You Know?

• He was the first person to treat Space Motion Sickness with an intramuscular injection of Phenergan, which became NASA's standard of care.
• On STS-40, Bagian performed the first magic trick in space, coordinating with CAPCOM Marsha Ivins to match a card from a sealed deck on Earth.
• He served as an investigator for the 51-L accident board in 1986 and later as Chief Flight Surgeon for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board in 2003.
• Bagian graduated first in his class from Drexel University in 1973 and first in his flight surgeon class at the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine.

Experience

James P. Bagian started out in 1973 as a process engineer for 3M in Bristol, Pennsylvania, then moved to a mechanical engineering role at the U.S. Naval Air Test Center in Patuxent River, Maryland, from 1976 to 1978, all while working toward his medical degree. He earned that degree from Thomas Jefferson University in 1977 and spent the next year as a general surgery resident at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania. In 1978, he became a flight surgeon and research medical officer at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, simultaneously attending the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine in San Antonio, Texas, where he finished first in his flight surgeon class.

He was in the middle of an anesthesiology residency at the University of Pennsylvania when NASA tapped him for its astronaut candidate program. Bagian earned his Professional Engineers Certification in 1986 and became board-certified in aerospace medicine through the American College of Preventive Medicine in 1987. Since 1981, he has been involved in mountain rescue, including work on the Denali Medical Research Project and teaching snow-and-ice rescue techniques on Mount Hood.

He holds the rank of colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and serves as pararescue flight surgeon for the 939th Air Rescue Wing. A qualified USAF freefall parachutist and private pilot, he has logged over 1,500 hours in propeller planes, jets, helicopters, and gliders.

NASA experience

James P. Bagian joined NASA’s astronaut corps in July 1980. He helped plan and deliver emergency medical and rescue support for the first six Space Shuttle missions. As the Astronaut Office’s coordinator, he managed payload software and crew equipment, aided in payload development, and helped verify Shuttle flight software. In 1986, he was an investigator on the 51-L accident board.

He led the creation and rollout of the pressure suit for crew escape and other survival gear for later Shuttle flights, and directed Shuttle search and rescue planning for the Astronaut Office. Bagian also sat on NASA’s Research Animal Holding Facility Review Board. He has published many scientific papers on human factors, environmental medicine, and aerospace medicine. A two-time space traveler, he flew on STS-29 in 1989 and STS-40 in 1991, logging over 337 hours in orbit.

In 2003, he served as Chief Flight Surgeon and Medical Consultant for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, and he remains a member of the NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel.

STS-29

Bagian first flew on STS-29, which launched aboard the Orbiter Discovery from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on March 13, 1989. During the five-day mission, the crew deployed a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite and conducted secondary experiments, including a Space Station heat pipe radiator experiment, two student experiments, a protein crystal growth experiment, and a chromosome and plant cell division experiment. Bagian was principal investigator for Detailed Supplementary Objective 470, which used transcranial Doppler to study changes in cerebral blood flow and its relation to Space Adaptation Syndrome and Space Motion Sickness.

He became the first person to treat Space Motion Sickness with intramuscular injection of Phenergan; this treatment regimen was adopted by NASA as the standard of care for Shuttle crews. The crew took over 3,000 photographs of Earth, including with an IMAX 70 mm movie camera. The mission lasted 80 orbits and landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on March 18, 1989, logging over 119 hours in space.

STS-40

Bagian served as Lead Mission Specialist on STS-40 Spacelab Life Sciences, the first dedicated space and life sciences mission, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on June 5, 1991. The nine-day mission included experiments on how the heart, blood vessels, lungs, kidneys, and hormone-secreting glands respond to microgravity, the causes of space sickness, and changes in muscles, bones, and cells during space flight. Other payloads investigated materials science, plant biology, and cosmic radiation.

Bagian devised and implemented repair procedures for malfunctioning experiment hardware, allowing all scheduled scientific objectives to be accomplished. On this flight, he performed the first magic trick in space, having secured permission from the STS-40 Flight Director and Director of Flight Operations. During the mission, on live TV, Ivins opened the sealed deck, shuffled it, and randomly selected a card. Bagian then revealed his own deck, in which one card was reversed; Pilot Sidney Gutierrez pulled out the reversed card, which matched the card Ivins had selected on Earth.

Columbia landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on June 14, 1991, after 146 orbits, adding 218 hours to Bagian's spaceflight time.