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Notable people · Aviation Space · Military

Robert F. Overmyer

Westlake-raised Marine test pilot who piloted STS-5, the first operational Space Shuttle flight, in 1982 and commanded Spacelab 3 in 1985.

Born July 14, 1936, Lorain
Died March 22, 1996, near Duluth International Airport, Duluth

Robert F. Overmyer
Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born
July 14, 1936, Lorain (Lorain County) source
Died
March 22, 1996, near Duluth International Airport, Duluth source
Buried
Arlington National Cemetery, Section 23, Grave 22469 source
Also known as
Robert F. Overmyer, Bob Overmyer
Known as
Aviation Space, Military

Life story

Robert Overmyer was born in Lorain in 1936, but his family moved to Westlake in 1941 and he always called Westlake home. He graduated from Westlake High School in 1954 and from Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea with a physics degree in 1958, the year he joined the Marine Corps. After flight training, attack-squadron service, a master's degree at the Naval Postgraduate School and the Air Force test pilot school, he was picked in 1966 for the Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory, and moved to NASA when that programme was cancelled in 1969. He spent 13 years in support jobs, as Apollo 17 launch capsule communicator, NASA's voice in the Moscow control centre for Apollo-Soyuz, and chase pilot for the shuttle approach and landing tests, before piloting STS-5 in November 1982. He commanded STS-51-B, the Spacelab 3 mission, in 1985, helped lead the recovery of the Challenger crew in 1986, and retired that May. He died in 1996 testing a Cirrus VK-30 light aircraft near Duluth, Minnesota. An Ohio historical marker in Westlake's Clague Park tells his story.

Ohio ties

Timeline

  1. 1936 Born in Lorain on 14 July. source
  2. 1941 His family moved to Westlake, which he always considered his hometown. source
  3. 1954 Graduated from Westlake High School. source
  4. 1958 Received a B.S. in physics from Baldwin-Wallace College and entered active duty with the Marine Corps in January. source
  5. 1959 After Navy flight training at Kingsville, Texas, joined Marine Attack Squadron 214 in November. source
  6. 1964 Received an M.S. in aeronautics from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, then served a year with Marine Maintenance Squadron 17 at Iwakuni, Japan. source
  7. 1966 Chosen as an astronaut for the Air Force Manned Orbiting Laboratory programme, after the Air Force test pilot school at Edwards. source
  8. 1969 Selected as a NASA astronaut after the Manned Orbiting Laboratory was cancelled; worked on Skylab engineering until 1971. source
  9. 1972 Served on the Apollo 17 support crew and as launch capsule communicator for the December flight. source
  10. 1975 Was NASA's capsule communicator in the Moscow mission control centre for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. source
  11. 1976 Assigned to the Shuttle Approach and Landing Test programme, in which he was prime T-38 chase pilot for orbiter free flights 1 and 3. source
  12. 1979 Became deputy vehicle manager of Columbia at Kennedy Space Center, in charge of finishing its manufacture and tiling until it went to the pad in 1980. source
  13. 1982 Piloted STS-5, 11-16 November, the first fully operational shuttle flight and first with a four-man crew, which deployed two commercial communications satellites. source
  14. 1982 Received an honorary doctorate from Baldwin-Wallace College at a recognition dinner on 8 December, and a hero's welcome from the college, the City of Westlake and NASA Lewis Research Center. source
  15. 1985 Commanded STS-51-B (Spacelab 3), 29 April to 6 May, 110 orbits with a crew of seven. source
  16. 1986 With Robert Crippen, was put in charge of recovering the Challenger crew's remains. source
  17. 1986 Served as one of NASA's lead investigators of the Challenger accident, then retired from NASA and the Marine Corps in May. source
  18. 1995 Joined Cirrus Design of Duluth, Minnesota, as a test pilot in November, after working for McDonnell Douglas from 1988 to 1995. source
  19. 1996 Killed on 22 March when the Cirrus VK-30 he was testing for stall recovery with full flaps at the aft centre-of-gravity limit departed controlled flight near Duluth. source

Stories

Seven coffins, not six

After the Challenger accident in January 1986, Overmyer and Robert Crippen, both veteran shuttle pilots, were put in charge of recovering the bodies of their colleagues from the Atlantic. According to NBC correspondent Jay Barbree, they refused interference from anyone, whatever their rank. They decided that when the families received their dead there would be seven flag-draped coffins, not six. Payload specialist Gregory Jarvis had not yet been found, and Crippen paid a local scallop boat out of his own pocket to drag the ocean floor in a last search.

Source

A Berea grindstone in orbit

When Overmyer flew STS-5 in November 1982 he took his old college with him. Among the items he carried for Baldwin-Wallace were three mounted B-W pennants with flight patches, one each for students, faculty and staff, and a Berea grindstone that rode in his survival kit. He gave them to the college, with a large colour portrait of himself in his NASA suit, for a permanent display. That December the college gave him an honorary doctorate at a dinner in the Strosacker College Union, and he was welcomed home by the college, the City of Westlake and NASA's Lewis Research Center in Cleveland.

Source

The long wait for a seat

Overmyer joined NASA in 1969 from the cancelled Manned Orbiting Laboratory and waited 13 years to fly. In that time he was launch capsule communicator for Apollo 17, NASA's capsule communicator inside the Soviet control centre in Moscow during Apollo-Soyuz, T-38 chase pilot for the shuttle approach and landing tests, and the manager who finished building and tiling Columbia at Kennedy Space Center. When he finally flew, as pilot of STS-5, the mission was the first with a four-man crew and the first to put commercial satellites into orbit from the shuttle's payload bay. It ended on 16 November 1982 with the first shuttle entry and landing through a cloud deck.

Source

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

123
  • 1 Ohio Historical Marker 118-18, Astronaut Robert Franklyn Overmyer (Westlake Historical Society, the Stanton-Pfister family and the Ohio Historical Society), beside the gazebo at the large pond
    Clague Park, Roman Road at Clague Road, Westlake Cuyahoga County · source
  • 2 Westlake High School, 27830 Hilliard Boulevard (current school; Overmyer graduated in 1954 from its predecessor)
    Westlake Cuyahoga County · source
  • 3 Baldwin Wallace University (Baldwin-Wallace College), physics B.S. 1958
    Berea Cuyahoga County · source
  • Grave of Robert F. Overmyer, Arlington National Cemetery, Section 23, Grave 22469
    Arlington, Virginia source

Ohio places

Where Robert F. Overmyer was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Documents

Primary records: patents, letters, court and government files, nominations and old county histories, each at the archive that holds it.

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

  • NASA Astronaut Robert Franklyn Overmyer
    NASA Astronaut Robert Franklyn Overmyer
    Public domain
  • Left to Right: Robert F. (Bob) Overmyer, USMC; Henry W. (Hank) Hartsfield, USAF; Robert L. Crippen, USN; Karol J. Bobko,
    Left to Right: Robert F. (Bob) Overmyer, USMC; Henry W. (Hank) Hartsfield, USAF; Robert L. Crippen, USN; Karol...
    Public domain
  • The seventh group of NASA astronauts, selected in 1969 after the cancellation of the Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laborat
    The seventh group of NASA astronauts, selected in 1969 after the cancellation of the Air Force's Manned Orbiti...
    Public domain
  • Apollo 17 Command Module Pilot Ronald E. Evans, center, receives lunar orbital geology instruction from geologist Farouk
    Apollo 17 Command Module Pilot Ronald E. Evans, center, receives lunar orbital geology instruction from geolog...
    Public domain
  • Farouk El-Baz reviewing lunar maps with Ronald Evans and Robert Overmyer.
    Farouk El-Baz reviewing lunar maps with Ronald Evans and Robert Overmyer.
    Public domain
  • NASA photo KSC-72P-537 was taken on December 4, [1972,] two days before the scheduled launch [of Apollo 17], and shows G
    NASA photo KSC-72P-537 was taken on December 4, [1972,] two days before the scheduled launch [of Apollo 17], a...
    Public domain
  • Two astronauts associated with the joint U.S.-USSR Apollo-Soyuz Test Project receive instructions in the Russian languag
    Two astronauts associated with the joint U.S.-USSR Apollo-Soyuz Test Project receive instructions in the Russi...
    Public domain
  • NASA Astronaut Robert F. Overmyer performing preflight checks of a T-38A aircraft at Ellington Air Force Base in Texas.
    NASA Astronaut Robert F. Overmyer performing preflight checks of a T-38A aircraft at Ellington Air Force Base ...
    Public domain
  • The official portrait of STS-5 mission crewmembers includes astronauts Vance D. Brand (second left), commander; Robert F
    The official portrait of STS-5 mission crewmembers includes astronauts Vance D. Brand (second left), commander...
    Public domain
  • NASA Astronaut and STS-5 Pilot Robert F. Overmyer behind the pilot's seat on the flight deck of the Space Shuttle Columb
    NASA Astronaut and STS-5 Pilot Robert F. Overmyer behind the pilot's seat on the flight deck of the Space Shut...
    Public domain
  • STS-5 crew preflight breakfast.
    STS-5 crew preflight breakfast.
    Public domain
  • Crew onboard portrait taken on port side middeck shows Commander Vance D. Brand holding Ace Moving Co sign (partially ob
    Crew onboard portrait taken on port side middeck shows Commander Vance D. Brand holding Ace Moving Co sign (pa...
    Public domain

Sources

Confidence. High: the main facts were confirmed in sources we opened.

Every link goes to the original source. Profile researched 2026-10-15.

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