HOUSTON -- Senior NASA scientist and former astronaut Karl G. Henize died Oct. 5 of altitude-related respiratory failure while trying to ascend Mount Everest, Johnson Space Center officials announced yesterday.
The 66-year-old scientist, who was on leave from NASA, was participating in an expedition conducted by High Adventure BVI, a British research group.
About halfway into the team's first day of climbing, Henize began experiencing respiratory problems, said Jeff Carr, a NASA spokesman. After Henize failed to respond to oxygen, the team returned with him to the British base camp in China.
Henize died in his sleep the next day, Carr said. The Cincinnati native was buried on Mount Everest at the base camp, as he had requested.
Henize received a bachelor's degree in math and a master's degree in astronomy from the University of Virginia. He received a doctorate in astronomy from the University of Michigan in 1954.
Advertisement
After an extensive career as an astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and as a professor at Northwestern University, Henize was selected in 1967 as a scientist-astronaut by NASA.
He was a member of the astronaut support crew for the Apollo 15 flight.
In 1985, he flew on the space shuttle on the Spacelab 2 mission. On that mission, Henize was responsible for testing and operating the instrument-pointing system, operating the shuttle's robot arm and performing several scientific experiments.
Henize retired from the astronaut program in 1986, but continued his work for NASA as a senior scientist in the space sciences branch at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. He contributed extensively to the study of space debris and possible related hazards to the space station.
In 1968, Henize received the Robert Gordon Memorial Award, and in 1974, he was awarded the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal.
During his career, Henize produced 75 technical papers on stellar objects and discovered more than 2,000 stars in the southern hemisphere, designated by "HE" in star catalogues.
Henize is survived by his wife, Caroline; four children, Kurt, Marcia, Skye and Vance; and a brother, Wilson Henize.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZK6zr8eirZ5nnKSworiOanBya19mfXB8mGidqKqdmr9urdKtqaimkarBbrfAq6NmoJWjtruxjJ2gnqtfZ6%2BlgcRxa51lk259c3mTnmdvZZJohnp5wZuacG1obrKjgMBuZg%3D%3D