Mario Runco Jr.
Mario Runco Jr. is a former United States Naval officer and NASA astronaut. He was selected as an astronaut with in 1987. He flew three Space Shuttle missions, performed a spacewalk on his second mission, and is now retired both from NASA and the U.S. Navy.Early life and education
Mario Runco, Jr. was born on January 26, 1952, in The Bronx, New York, to Mario and Filomena Ragusa Runco. Raised in the Highbridge neighborhood of The Bronx, his family moved to Yonkers, New York, in his early teen years. Runco graduated from Sacred Heart School, in the Bronx, NY in 1966 and Cardinal Hayes High School, the Bronx, NY in 1970. He earned a bachelor of science degree in meteorology and physical oceanography from the City College of New York in 1974 and a master of science degree in meteorology from Rutgers University in 1976. He played intercollegiate ice hockey on the City College of New York and Rutgers University teams.Special honors
He was awarded the Defense Superior Service Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, NASA Exceptional Service Medal, Navy Achievement Medal and Navy Pistol Expert Medal. He was also awarded three NASA Space Flight Medals, two Navy Sea Service Ribbons |USS NASSAU and USNS Chauvenet, and the Navy Battle Efficiency Ribbon. He received a Rotary National Space Achievement Stellar Team Award for his work on the International Space Station’s Science Window and the Window Observational Research Facility, He was also the recipient of the City College of New York's Townsend Harris Medal, and the Cardinal Hayes High School Cardinal Francis Joseph Spellman Award. As an undergraduate, he received the City College of New York Class of 1938 Athletic Service Award and is believed to be the first person of Italian origin to fly in space, being decorated accordingly by the president of Italy in 1999. He received an honorary doctor of science degree from the City College of New York in 1999.Early career
Working at various positions even through his school years, Runco worked continuously from age nine until his retirement on December 31, 2017, eventually accumulating 57 years of continuous employment and almost 48 years of federal service with four different federal agencies. After graduating from Rutgers University, he worked for a year as a research hydrologist conducting ground water surveys for the United States Geological Survey on Long Island, New York. In 1977, he joined the New Jersey State Police and, after completing training at the State Police Academy, he worked as a New Jersey State Trooper until he entered the United States Navy in June 1978. Upon completion of Navy Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, in September 1978, he was commissioned and assigned to the Naval Oceanographic and Atmospheric Research Laboratory then known as the Naval Environmental Prediction Research Facility in Monterey, California, as a research meteorologist. From April 1981 to December 1983, he served as the Meteorological Officer aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Nassau |USS NASSAU . It was during this tour of duty that he earned his designation as a Naval Surface Warfare Officer. From January 1984 to December 1985, he worked as a laboratory instructor at the Naval Postgraduate School, specifically the Geophysics Technical Readiness Laboratory, in Monterey, California. From December 1985 to December 1986, he served as Commanding Officer of Oceanographic Unit 4 embarked in the naval survey vessel USNS Chauvenet |USNS CHAUVENET , conducting hydrographic and oceanographic surveys of the Makassar and Sunda Straits and the Flores and Java Seas, Indonesia. His last assignment within the Navy before being assigned to NASA was as Fleet Environmental Services Officer at the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command's Naval Western Meteorology and Oceanography Center, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He joined NASA in 1987 and remained on active duty as a NASA astronaut until 1994 after which he continued his NASA career as a civilian astronaut until his retirement.NASA tenure
Selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate in June 1987, Runco qualified for assignment as an astronaut mission specialist in August 1988. A veteran of three space flights, Runco has logged over 551 hours in space which includes a 4.5 hour spacewalk during his STS-54 mission. His technical assignments included serving in Operations Development, where he assisted in the design, development and testing of the Space Shuttle crew escape system after the Challenger accident; in Mission Support, at the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory as a SAIL Commander, performing test and evaluation of Space Shuttle mission-specific flight software; at the Kennedy Space Center, as an Astronaut Support Person, where he assisted in preparing Space Shuttle missions for launch supporting missions STS-81, 82, 83, 84, 94, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, & 91, and in the Johnson Space Center's Mission Control Center as a Capsule Communicator supporting missions STS-60, 62, 63, 65, 66, 67, 68, 92, 93, 96, 97, 98, 99, 101, 104, 105, 106, & 109 as the Lead CAPCOM for the last Hubble Space Telescope repair mission. He was served as an Earth and planetary scientist and the lead for Spacecraft Window Optics and Utilization for the International Space Station's windows, including the U.S. Laboratory Destiny Module Nadir Science Window, the Window Observational Research Facility, and the ISS's Cupola windows, all of which he helped design.Spaceflight
On his first flight, Runco served as a Mission Specialist on the crew of STS-44 aboard the Space Shuttle ATLANTIS which launched from the Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A on the night of November 24, 1991. The primary mission objective was accomplished with the successful deployment of a Defense Support Program satellite. In addition, the crew conducted two Military Man-in-Space Earth Observation experiments, three radiation monitoring experiments, and numerous life sciences experiments in support of long duration space flights. STS-44 was originally scheduled as a 10-day mission; however, the oxygen loading for the mission was not sufficient to last 10 days due to the weight of the primary payload so the crew would need to drastically conserve power to be able to make the oxygen last through the full mission duration. The crew’s power conservation efforts paid off on flight day 6 when it appeared there finally was enough oxygen to last the rest of the mission; however, the mission was cut short as Minimum Duration Flight when a second navigational Inertial Measurement Unit was powered up for redundancy and immediately failed and and fellow classmate Jan Davis dejectedly called the Commander Fred Gregory with the bad news, "“Fred, we’ve run out of ideas on IMU-2. We see problems both with the attitude and the velocity. We have declared IMU-2 failed.” ATLANTIS returned with only 2 of 3 IMU’s operating to a contingency landing the next day on lakebed runway 05 at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on December 1, 1991, completing 110 orbits of the Earth.STS-54
Even before launching for his first mission, Runco was assigned as a Mission Specialist to his second flight, STS-54, which would fly on the Space Shuttle ENDEAVOUR. STS-54 launched from KSC’s launch pad 39B launch pad 39B on January 13, 1993, and landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility runway 33 at KSC in Florida on January 19, 1993, completing 96 orbits of the Earth. The six-day mission’s primary objective was accomplished with his deployment of a NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite on flight day 1. Also carried in the payload bay was the . This astronomical instrument for studying stellar evolution scanned the local vicinity of our Milky Way galaxy and recorded the low-energy X-ray emanations believed to originate from the plasma remnants of an ancient supernova. Crewmate Greg Harbaugh and Runco also became the 47th and 48th Americans to walk in space during a 4.5-hour spacewalk designed to evaluate the limits of human performance during extravehicular activities in anticipation of the construction of the ISS. Included in these EVA evaluations was the first and only attempt thus far at ingressing a personal foot restraint without the use of handholds, which Runco accomplished successfully and is still the only person to have done so. Of Runco, his spacewalking crew mate commented, “Mario was the most naturally skilled EVA guy I ever saw. He moved with ease and was able to accomplish everything he was challenged to do. He ingressed the Personal Foot Restraint without handholds, a task ground controllers were taking bets on as to whether it could be accomplished or not, look like he’d done it his whole life, and even did it a second time when disbelieving ground controllers asked him to do it again, which he did. Early in the EVA, he even caught a small tool case when it came loose after my tether hook failed to close as we were transferring the tool items we needed to take with us from the payload bay’s EVA tool box or Personnel Support Assembly to our portable mini-work stations. Mario had large strong hands, which are a huge asset for EVA, and he was a hockey player so he had tremendous endurance. I find it curious that he never got a chance to display his skills on HST or ISS.” Lastly, in what was called the , which has since become a popular children's educational video, the crew also demonstrated how everyday toys behave in space to an interactive audience of elementary school students across the United States. Mission duration was 5 days, 23 hours and 38 minutes.On his last mission he served as a Mission Specialist on the crew of STS-77 aboard the Space Shuttle ENDEAVOUR. Launching from KSC’s launch pad 39B on May 19, 1996, STS-77 carried a number of technology development experiments as well as a suite of microgravity science experiments. STS-77 also featured the fourth flight of a SpaceHab module, in this case a double module, as an experiment laboratory carried in ENDEAVOUR’s payload bay. The technology development experiments included two deployable satellites both of which were deployed by Runco. For the deploy of the Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy -207/Inflatable Antenna Experiment Runco was the Remote Manipulator System operator. The other deployable was a small Satellite Test Unit which was designed to use the drag from the rarified atmosphere present in low Earth orbit and the Earth’s magnetic field for attitude control and stabilization. His foresight in having high resolution and low light level photography equipment and a high intensity spotlight added to the mission’s suite of photography equipment and insisting that a second overhead window rather than a blank be installed in the second of the twin SpaceHab modules, salvaged this experiment when its laser Attitude Measuring System, also installed in the payload bay, failed shortly after deploy of the satellite. He used these assets and his photographic expertise to capture video of the STU as Endeavour tracked and flew astern of it for several days. Principal investigators were able to use the video retrieved by Runco in lieu of the AMS data to complete their evaluations. A clip from this have even been posted on the internet as proof of the existence of UFO’s. He also captured some additional scenes for a sequel to the original STS-54 educational video and subsequently made several appearances on the children’s television show Sesame Street in 1998 for the “Slimey to the Moon” series during Season 29. STS-77 landed at KSC’s SLF runway 33 on May 29, 1996, completing 161 orbits of the Earth. Mission duration was 10 days and 39 minutes.