72-149 Astronauts Chapman and England resign
NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas 77058
FOR RELEASE: July 14, 1972 3:00 p.m.
Douglas K. Ward (713/483-5111)
RELEASE NO: 72-149
ASTRONAUTS CHAPMAN AND ENGLAND RESIGN
Astronauts Philip K. Chapman and Anthony W. England today announced their resignations from the astronaut corps.
Dr. Chapman said he has accepted a job as Principal Research Scientist with AVCO Everett Research Laboratories in Everett, Massachusetts, and will also work as a senior research associate in the Measurement Systems Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Dr. England is accepting a position with the Regional Geophysics Group of the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver. He will assist in developing techniques using radar from airplanes and spacecraft to learn about the surface and subsurface structure of the earth and other planets. Dr. England will also continue as a co-investigator for the electrical surface properties experiment which will be conducted on the lunar surface during Apollo 17.
Dr. Chapman, a native of Melbourne, Australia, was selected as a scientist-astronaut by NASA in 1967. While in training as an astronaut, Dr. Chapman has continued to work on research projects in his field of physics, including experiments on gravity aimed at checking the fundamental basis of Einstein's general theory on relativity. Dr. Chapman will continue this work at MIT. His job at AVCO Everett Laboratories will deal with high-energy laser research.
Dr. Chapman was Mission Scientist on the Apollo 14 mission and assisted in training the Apollo 16 crew in conducting experiments from lunar orbit. Prior to his selection as an astronaut he was a staff physicist at MIT, obtaining his Ph.D. there in science and instrumentation in 1967.
Dr. Chapman's resignation from NASA is effective today.
Dr. England, whose hometown is Fargo, North Dakota, was selected as a scientist-astronaut in 1967. He served as Mission Scientist on Apollo 13 and Apollo 16, assisting in training prime and backup crew members in the geology of landing sites. He also set ved as spacecraft communicator on the Apollo 16 mission, handling communications between the astronauts on the lunar surface and the flight control team in the Mission Control Center. Dr. England has also participated in manned vacuum ehamber tests to verify that Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments could be operated satisfactorily by astronauts in the lunar environment.
Dr. England received his Ph.D. degree in geophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1970 and was a graduate fellow at MIT for three years prior to his selection as an astronaut. His resignation from NASA is effective August 14.
Center Director Dr. Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. expressed appreciation to Chapman and England for their contributions to the Apollo program over the past five years.
"All of us at the Manned Spacecraft Center wish them every success in their future endeavors in the scientific community," he said.
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