One of 25 Ohioans who share the title of NASA astronaut, Donald A. Thomas and the STS-65 Columbia crew at one time held the space shuttle program’s flight duration record. The materials and life sciences research mission took 236 orbits of the Earth and traveled 6.1 million miles in 353 hours and 55 minutes from July 18 to July 23, 1994. The nearly 424-hour STS-80 mission in 1996 broke this record.
Select photos courtesy of University Archives.