Dr Ronald Parise
NASA Payload Specialist: Operated ASTRO Telescope Package from the bay of the space shuttle, December 1990 and March 1995.For his shuttle mission biography, link here.
For his official NASA biography, link here.
Pre YSU:
Parise became a licensed radio operator when he was 11 years old. In his teens, he developed an interest in astronomy and learned to pilot an airplane.At YSU:
While at Youngstown State University, Parise was an active member of the Mahoning Valley Astronomical Society, the local amateur astronomy organization. He worked as a student in the Physics and Astronomy Department, assisting in presenting Planetarium shows and running the telescope during public nights at the observatory. He was active in the Society of Physics Students and the physics honorary society, Sigma Pi Sigma.He graduated from YSU in 1973 with a BS major in Physics, and minors in Astronomy, Geology and Mathematics. He married fellow YSU student Ceclia Sokol shortly after graduation: they now have two children.
University of Florida:
He was awarded a master of science degree in 1977 and a Ph.D. in Astronomy in 1979 from the University of Florida.Computer Science Corporation:
Dr. Parise went to work at Computer Science Corporation (CSC) in Sliver Springs, Maryland, shortly after receiving his Ph.D. He became manager of the Advanced Astronomy Programs and was involved in flight software development, electronic system design and mission planning activities for the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT). This telescope was one of the instruments in the NASA ASTRO payload, an orbiting astronomical observatory.NASA:
Because of his involvement in the design and development of the UIT, he was selected by NASA as a payload specialist to operate experiments in the ASTRO mission. His first flight was originally planned for March 1986, when he was also scheduled to study Halley's Comet from orbit. The Challenger tragedy early in 1986 put the entire shuttle program, and Dr. Parise's mission, on hold.ASTRO missions:
Dr. Parise has flown in space twice as part of the ASTRO missions (ASTRO is not an acronym -- it is short for Astronomy). The first mission, ASTRO-1, was rescheduled for 1990 after the Challenger tragedy and finally launched aboard the space shuttle Columbia in the early morning of December 2. It was the beginning of 215 hours in space for Parise. Dr. Parise and his colleagues, Jeffrey Hoffman, Robert Parker and Samuel Durrance, operated a package of three ultraviolet telescopes housed in the cargo bay of the shuttle. They became the first astronomers to operate telescopes in space and observed 135 objects, including double stars, star clusters, galaxies, the planet Jupiter, Comet Levy and the 1987 supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
ASTRO-2 Crew Photo
Ron Parise is at extreme left, back row.
ASTRO-2 was launched aboard the shuttle Endeavour in the early morning hours of March 2, 1995. It set the record for longest shuttle flight ever when it landed the afternoon of March 18 after 16 days in space. Parise and Durrance reprised their roles as payload specialists to operate the UIT, the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment and the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope.
Ultraviolet observations identify hot and energetic sources in the universe, including those within our own solar system. Observations in these wavelengths can only be done from space because Earth's atmosphere absorbs ultraviolet radiation before it can reach the surface. The telescopes also targeted individual stars, stellar systems, nebulae, distant galaxies, quasars, and clusters of galaxies. One of the major discoveries of the ASTRO-2 flight was the detection of primordial helium in intergalactic space, confirming one of the major predictions of the Big Bang Theory.
Astronomers will be analyzing the results of the two ASTRO missions for years in an attempt to better understand the birth, life and death of both stars and galaxies. Dr. Parise is a member of the research team now analyzing these ultraviolet images.
