Jon mcbride astronaut biography

— Former NASA astronaut Jon McBride, who was the pilot on the first mission to launch seven people into space, has died at the age of 80.

McBride's death on Wednesday (Aug. 7) was confirmed by NASA after the agency heard from his family.

"Jon McBride dedicated himself to the nation we love. His leadership during one of the early space shuttle missions — as the pilot for the first crew of seven — expanded our possibilities in the stars. He was my friend, and we will miss him," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in a social media post.

A member of the "TFNG" ("Thirty-Five New Guys"), NASA's first group of space shuttle astronauts selected in 1978, McBride's first and only flight into space was as pilot of the space shuttle Challenger's sixth flight into space on Oct. 5, 1984.

"We lifted off, started accelerating, and it was just — wow," said McBride in a NASA oral history interview in 2012. "Simulators are good, but this is just something else, and you