Neat photo of the Spacelab 3 scientist-astronauts, around 1985. Taylor Wang and Lodewijk van den Berg (back row) were the primary crew who actually flew on STS-51-B in April-May of 1985, while Mary (Johnston) McCay and Gene Trinh (front row) served as the backup crew.
Dr. Taylor Gun-Jin Wang was a physicist and senior scientist with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He was selected as a NASA payload specialist in 1983. Wang became the first Chinese American and first person of Chinese origin to fly in space during STS-51-B, during which he performed various drop dynamics experiments and encapsulation system research. While that was Wang’s only spaceflight, scientists aboard subsequent Spacelab missions helped carry out several of his other experiments.
Dr. Lodewijk van den Berg was a Dutch American chemical engineer who specialized in crystal growth. His employer, a U.S. defense contractor, worked with NASA to develop an in-flight crystal growth experiment and both organizations decided it would be easier to make a scientist an astronaut than an astronaut a scientist. van den Berg put his name in for consideration but doubted he would be selected, until he was! At 53 years old, he became one of the oldest rookie astronauts to fly in space, where he took a leading part in the Vapor Crystal Growth System (VCGS) experiment.
Dr. Mary Helen McCay (née Johnston), a native Floridian, was the first woman to receive an engineering degree from Florida State University (in 1966) and later completed completed her doctorate of metallurgical engineering in 1973. She worked at Marshall Space Flight Center with a team of other women scientists before her 1983 selection as a payload specialist. She served as an alternate for STS-51-B and helped support missions during the flight. McCay left NASA in 1986 without flying in space and became a professor and inventor.
Dr. Eugene Huu-Chau “Gene” Trinh was a senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory with advanced degrees in applied physics. As an alternate member of the crew, he supported scientific experiments conducted on STS-51-B. A few years later Trinh became the first Vietnamese American astronaut in space during his only spaceflight on STS-50 in 1992. Along with biochemist Larry Delucas, Trinh performed experiments with the new U.S. Microgravity Laboratory 1 payload, which was also on its first flight.
