Story Musgrave: A Brief Biography

UCLA Alumni: Story Musgrave Life has its ups and downs, challenges and low points that everyone must overcome. Story Musgrave is a retired NASA astronaut and American physician born on August 19, 1935, in Boston Massachusetts. He was able to defy all odds and proved that any ambition can be reached while achieving goals above and beyond, all while starting his inspiring journey at a undoubtedly young age. Although Musgrave had a broken, alcohol driven, violent family, he made an attempt to build a better future for himself. At the age of seventeen, Musgrave was caught in a serious car accident that resulted in substantial injuries, almost ending his life. Just a few months after the life threatening accident, Musgrave dropped out of high school. Instead of giving up on life at that point, he decided to join the US Marine Corps. Musgrave was able to overcome his harsh life by reaching out to other opportunities, despite not graduating from high school. He essentially looked at the “bright side” and began to try to improve his life. Two years after joining the Marines, Musgrave decided to retie his connection with school and receive a …show more content…
As a student, he earned a total of seven degrees. NASA selected him to be one of the first astronaut-scientists and he began serving as a trauma surgeon at Denver General Hospital and did so for thirty years. After training as a parachutist and pilot, he earned his Air Force Wings and several FAA ratings including flight instructor. He has flown well over 160 different types of aircraft and has made more than 800 free falls, 100 of which were experimental falls used to study human aerodynamics. The story that Musgrave is known best for is commanding a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. He led the eleven day mission and completed three out of the five spacewalks himself, successfully fixing the