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Lee Out, Curbeam In
By Glen Golightly
Houston Bureau Chief
posted: 01:59 pm ET
08 September 1999
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Astronaut removcd from future shuttle missionHOUSTON Veteran astronaut and spacewalker U.S. Air Force Col. Mark Lee has been removed from the crew of a shuttle mission scheduled for April 2000. Lee, 47, will be replaced by U.S. Navy Lt. Cdr. Robert Curbeam on the fifth flight to the International Space Station. A NASA spokesman confirmed Lee has been assigned to other duties. According to his official biography, Lee was serving as chief of the Astronaut Office EVA Branch. NASA spokesman Edward Campion said Lee will remain on flight status and is eligible for future missions. Curbeam, 37, is currently scheduled for a mission in July 2000 and a replacement has not been named yet, he said. Campion declined to comment further, saying the decision was an internal Astronaut Office matter. Lee declined a request for an interview Wednesday. Lee has flown on the shuttle four times and has about 25 hours of spacewalking time racked up. He also flew on one of the Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions in 1997. Curbeam flew on a 1997 shuttle mission. According to his biography, he currently acts as a capcom or capsule communicator for space shuttle flights. He is also in training to perform spacewalks to assemble the International Space Station. Few astronauts have been removed from scheduled missions in the last few years. Former astronaut Robert "Hoot" Gibson was disciplined after flying in an air show and former astronaut David Walker was reprimanded after flying his T-38 too close to an airliner. Astronaut Jeff Ashby, who piloted the last shuttle mission, was removed from a flight in 1997 to care for his terminally ill wife.
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