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Ronald M. Sega

Cleveland-born physicist and Air Force officer who flew on the first U.S.-Russian shuttle mission (STS-60, 1994) and a Mir docking flight (STS-76, 1996), ran NASA's first operations office in Star City, and later served as Under Secretary of the Air Force.

Born December 4, 1952, Cleveland

Ronald M. Sega
Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born
December 4, 1952, Cleveland (Cuyahoga County) source
Also known as
Ron Sega, Ronald M. Sega
Known as
Aviation Space, Science Engineering, Military, Education, Politics

Ronald M. Sega is living. This page covers their public life only, from published sources. Correct this page · hello@crackedbuckeye.com

Life story

Ron Sega was born in Cleveland in 1952, grew up in the Northfield-Macedonia area of Summit County, and graduated from Nordonia High School in 1970. After the U.S. Air Force Academy (1974) he took a master's degree in physics at Ohio State in 1975, became an Air Force instructor pilot and physics instructor, and earned a doctorate in electrical engineering at the University of Colorado in 1982 before joining its Colorado Springs faculty. Selected as an astronaut in 1990, he co-led the Wake Shield Facility experiment for growing ultra-pure semiconductor films in orbit, flew it on STS-60 in February 1994, the first shuttle flight with a Russian cosmonaut aboard, served as NASA's director of operations at Star City outside Moscow in 1994-95, and was payload commander of STS-76, the third shuttle docking with Mir, in March 1996. He went on to be dean of engineering at UCCS, Director of Defense Research and Engineering (2001-2005) and Under Secretary of the Air Force (2005-2007), retiring from the Air Force Reserve as a major general. Ohio State brought him back from 2010 to 2013 in a post shared with Colorado State as vice president for energy and the environment.

Ohio ties

  • Cleveland (1952)
    birthplace Cuyahoga County · source
  • Macedonia (Nordonia High School) (to 1970)
    graduated from Nordonia High School in 1970; named to the school's Academic Hall of Fame in 1988 Summit County · source
  • Northfield (1996)
    listed with Colorado Springs as his hometown in UPI's STS-76 launch report Summit County · source
  • Columbus (Ohio State University) (1974-1975)
    M.S. in physics, 1975 Franklin County · source
  • Columbus (Ohio State University) (2010-2013)
    Vice President and Enterprise Executive for Energy and the Environment, a post shared between Ohio State and Colorado State, with tenured faculty posts at both Franklin County · source
  • Cleveland (2008)
    among the Ohio astronauts gathered in Cleveland on August 29, 2008 for NASA's 50th anniversary Cuyahoga County · source

Timeline

  1. 1952 Born December 4 in Cleveland, Ohio. source
  2. 1970 Graduated from Nordonia High School in Macedonia, Ohio. source
  3. 1974 Graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy with a B.S. in mathematics and physics as a Distinguished Graduate. source
  4. 1975 Earned an M.S. in physics from Ohio State University. source
  5. 1976 Completed pilot training and served as an instructor pilot at Williams AFB, Arizona, until 1979, when he joined the Air Force Academy physics faculty. source
  6. 1982 Earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Colorado and joined the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs faculty. source
  7. 1988 Was named to the Academic Hall of Fame of his high school in Macedonia, Ohio, and was Air Force Reserve Officer of the Year (IMA). source
  8. 1990 Selected as an astronaut with NASA Group 13; he became an astronaut in July 1991. source
  9. 1994 Flew on STS-60 Discovery (February 3-11), the first shuttle mission with a Russian cosmonaut, Sergei Krikalev, aboard, and the first flight of the Wake Shield Facility he co-led. source
  10. 1994 From November 1994 to March 1995 served as NASA's Director of Operations at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, and was the first American to train in the Russian Orlan spacesuit in its underwater facility. source
  11. 1996 Was payload commander on STS-76 Atlantis (March 22-31), the third shuttle docking with Mir, which left Shannon Lucid aboard the station. source
  12. 1996 Left NASA on July 1 to become dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. source
  13. 1998 Recorded two sessions for NASA's Shuttle-Mir Oral History Project with Carol Butler in Colorado Springs (July 6 and September 9). source
  14. 2001 Became Director of Defense Research and Engineering at the Department of Defense, serving to August 2005. source
  15. 2005 Became Under Secretary of the Air Force, serving to August 2007; his energy team won the Presidential Award for Leadership in Federal Energy Management for fiscal 2006. source
  16. 2007 Joined Colorado State University and founded its systems engineering program. source
  17. 2010 Ohio State and Colorado State created a shared position, Vice President and Enterprise Executive for Energy and the Environment, for him; he held it until 2013. source
  18. 2016 Inducted into the Colorado Space Hall of Fame. source
  19. 2019 Left the CSU systems engineering directorship to become chief technology officer of U.S. Army Futures Command. source

Stories

Flying the first cosmonaut on the shuttle

Sega's first flight, STS-60 in February 1994, carried cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, the first Russian to fly on an American shuttle. In his 1998 interviews for NASA's Shuttle-Mir oral history, Sega said the crew under commander Charles Bolden made a point of bringing the cosmonauts' families, who had moved to the Clear Lake area near Houston, into the team, and the crew took Russian classes. On orbit he and Krikalev ran joint U.S.-Russian medical tests, and the crew photographed Earth sites at the same moment on Russian and American infrared film cut down to fit a Hasselblad camera. Sega said he expected his work with Russia to end when STS-60 landed. Instead he spent nearly five months in Star City as NASA's director of operations and then flew to Mir on STS-76.

Source

The Wake Shield

Before NASA, Sega worked with the University of Houston's Space Vacuum Epitaxy Center as a research associate professor of physics in 1989-90, and he became co-principal investigator and mission director of the Wake Shield Facility, a free-flying platform designed to grow thin semiconductor films in the ultra-high vacuum it leaves in its wake in orbit. On its first flight, STS-60 in February 1994, Sega was flight engineer for ascent and entry and worked the shuttle's robot arm, berthing the Wake Shield onto its carrier in the payload bay on four separate occasions. He had earlier built a laboratory at the Air Force Academy to study microwave fields using infrared techniques while working on his doctorate, and he has written or co-written more than 100 technical papers.

Source

Back to Ohio State

Sega took his master's in physics at Ohio State in 1975, a year after the Air Force Academy. In 2010 Ohio State and Colorado State announced a three-year shared post for him, Vice President and Enterprise Executive for Energy and the Environment, splitting his time between Columbus and Fort Collins with tenure in both engineering colleges. The two land-grant universities then had more than 500 faculty working on energy and environment, and Sega was to find joint national projects and economic development openings for Ohio and Colorado. OSU president E. Gordon Gee called him a distinguished alumnus brought back to Ohio State. Sega held the shared post until 2013.

Source

Sites to know

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

12

Ohio places

Where Ronald M. Sega was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Myths and corrections

Things often said about Ronald M. Sega, and what the record shows.

Often said In the edited JSC transcript of Sega's September 1998 oral history, the 'Ken' who joined the STS-60 medical tests is identified in brackets as Ken [Cameron].

The record Kenneth Cameron, also an Ohio astronaut, was not on STS-60. NASA's mission page lists the crew as Bolden, pilot Kenneth F. Reightler Jr., Davis, Sega, Chang-Diaz and Krikalev, so the 'Ken' was Reightler. source

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.

  • These 18 men and five women make up NASA's 1990 class of astronaut candidates. Kneeling, left to right, are Charles J. P
    These 18 men and five women make up NASA's 1990 class of astronaut candidates. Kneeling, left to right, are Ch...
    Public domain
  • The STS-76 astronauts enjoy a late-night lunch in the Operations and Checkout Building. From left are Mission Specialist
    The STS-76 astronauts enjoy a late-night lunch in the Operations and Checkout Building. From left are Mission ...
    Public domain
  • The crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis poses for a traditional inflight portrait on the mid deck. Shannon W. Lucid (rear
    The crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis poses for a traditional inflight portrait on the mid deck. Shannon W. L...
    Public domain
  • PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — General Lance W. Lord, Commander of Air Force Space Command escorts Dr. Ronald M. Sega,
    PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — General Lance W. Lord, Commander of Air Force Space Command escorts Dr. Ronal...
    Public domain
  • COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Air Force Undersecretary Dr. Ronald Sega met with reporters at the National Space Symposium me
    COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Air Force Undersecretary Dr. Ronald Sega met with reporters at the National Space Sy...
    Public domain
  • Michael W. Wynne (right) takes the oath of office as the 21st Secretary of the Air Force during a ceremony in the Pentag
    Michael W. Wynne (right) takes the oath of office as the 21st Secretary of the Air Force during a ceremony in ...
    Public domain
  • Dr. Ronald M. Sega, Under Secretary of the Air Force speaks with Virginia Civil Air Patrol cadet Airman Basic Rachel Peg
    Dr. Ronald M. Sega, Under Secretary of the Air Force speaks with Virginia Civil Air Patrol cadet Airman Basic ...
    Public domain
  • An all-star gathering of legendary American astronauts appeared in Cleveland August 29, 2008 to celebrate NASA's 50th an
    An all-star gathering of legendary American astronauts appeared in Cleveland August 29, 2008 to celebrate NASA...
    Public domain
  • Dr. Ronald M. Sega is Under Secretary of the Air Force, Washington, D.C. Dr. Sega is responsible for all actions of the
    Dr. Ronald M. Sega is Under Secretary of the Air Force, Washington, D.C. Dr. Sega is responsible for all actio...
    Public domain
  • Astronaut Ronald M. Sega.
    Astronaut Ronald M. Sega.
    Public domain
  • Astronaut Ronald M. Sega suspends himself in the weightlessness aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery's crew cabin during S
    Astronaut Ronald M. Sega suspends himself in the weightlessness aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery's crew cabi...
    Public domain
  • Five NASA astronauts and a Russian Cosmonaut take a break from training for their scheduled flight in space to pose for
    Five NASA astronauts and a Russian Cosmonaut take a break from training for their scheduled flight in space to...
    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.

Correct this page · hello@crackedbuckeye.com