William Surles McArthur, Junior. is a retired United States Army Colonel, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration astronaut, and a veteran of three Space Shuttle missions and one expedition to the International Space Station via the Russian Soyuz capsule.
Education
He attended the United States Military Academy and earned his commission in the United States. Army. After serving with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, McArthur attended the United States. Army Aviation School and served tours of duty in of Korea and Georgia (where he earned a degree in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology). In 1987, McArthur attended the United States. Naval Test Pilot School and was trained as an experimental test pilot.
Career
He was assigned to a post as a flight test engineer at National Aeronautics and Space Administration and was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1990. McArthur"s first spaceflight was in 1993 aboard STS-58. Subsequent missions included STS-74 in 1995 and STS-92 in 2000.
A Master Army Aviator, McArthur has logged over 9,000 flight hours in 41 different aircraft and spacecraft.
He retired from the United States. Army in 2001. He lived aboard the station from October 3, 2005 until April 8, 2006.
McArthur currently serves as the Director of Safety and Mission Assurance for the Johnson Space Center. Expedition 12
In April 2006, McArthur and Expedition 13 flight officer Jeffrey Williams tested a new method of preparing for spacewalks by "camping out" or spending the night in the Quest airlock, the decompression capsule through which astronauts enter and exit space.
In the chamber the pressure was reduced from the normal 14.7 pounds per square inch (psi) to 10.2 psi.
The more commonly used method of preparing for spacewalks involves breathing pure oxygen for several hours to purge the body of nitrogen and avoid the bends. The "campout" method was intended to shorten that lengthy preparation time. Four hours into their sleep an error tone prompted mission controllers to cut short the activity, though it was still deemed a success.
Membership
McArthur was on board the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 12, having been launched on Soyuz Turnaround Management Association-7.