Native astronaut rockets into Carlsbad Hall of Fame

Carlsbad native and onetime astronaut Dr. Drew Gaffney is being inducted into the Carlsbad Hall of Fame Friday, Oct. 11 at 11 a.m.

Dr. Gaffney is being honored due to his extensive contributions to the Life Sciences Division at NASA headquarters. The ceremony is taking place at the Carlsbad Museum, which is free-admission.

The soon-to-be-inductee graduated from Carlsbad High School, received a B.A. Degree from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.D. from the University of Mexico, according to the New Mexico Museum of Space History. He earned a fellowship in cardiology at the University of Texas’ Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, also serving as a faculty associate and assistant professor of medicine there. From 1970-1987, Dr. Gaffney was the assistant director of echocardiography at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas.

Dr. Gaffney joined NASA’s Life Sciences Division in 1987 as a visiting senior scientist working in various capacities, including as a program scientist for the D-2 Spacelab mission and on a number of Space Station Freedom and advanced mission planning groups, notably the “Humans to Mars” study group.

He went on to fly aboard STS-40 Columbia Spacelab Life Sciences (SLS 1) in June 1991, which was the first Spacelab mission dedicated to biomedical studies, according to the museum. Dr. Gaffney spent more than 218 hours in space aboard STS-40.

Currently, Dr. Gaffney is a professor of medicine (cardiovascular disease) at Vanderbilt University and serves as a consultant/reviewer for human spaceflight-related studies, according to NASA. His achievements include over more than 100 publications in the areas of cardiovascular regulation, space physiology and patient safety, cited NASA, as well as numerous professional accolades.

The Carlsbad Museum is located at 418 West Fox St. in Carlsbad.