TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- Gregory B. Jarvis, a Payload Specialist for the Challenger flight, was an electrical engineer and not technically a federal government employee.
Jarvis graduated from the University of New York at Buffalo and Northeastern University with a Bachelors and Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering. In 1969, he joined the Air Force where he was assigned to the space division in El Segundo, California.
After being honorably discharged as a captain in 1973, Jarvis started working for the Hughes Aircraft Company's Space and Communications Group.
Jarvis was responsible for helping to launch three spacecraft into orbit and was selected among 600 fellow employees to work in the astronaut program at NASA as a Payload Specialist.
In 2004, Jarvis was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
WTXL ABC 27 and the Challenger Learning Center honor Gregory B. Jarvis, and will forever remember his contribution to the exploration of space.
