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| William G. Gregory, dressed astronaut |
William G. Gregory was born in Lockport, New York on May 14, 1957, is an American astronaut of Albanian descent from the city of Korça.
William G. Gregory is the son of a military pilot who emigrated from Albania when he was only 2 years old.
Gregory graduated with a degree in technical science from the American Air Force Academy in 1980. He is also a member of the USAF Graduate Academic Association. Between 1981 and 1986, Grigory served as a pilot on the F-111 D and F models. With this assignment, he served as a pilot instructor at RAF Lakenheath, UK, as well as at Cannon Air Base in New Mexico. He worked at the Air Force University (USAF test pilot school) in 1987. Between 1988 and 1990, Gregory served as a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base on F-4, A-7D, and all five types of aircraft. F-15. He has performed flights with 40 types of aircraft accumulating over 5 thousand flight hours. Has the military rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the US Air Force. Elected by NASA in January 1990, he became an astronaut in July 1991. Gregor's technical work preoccupations include the Aviation Integration Laboratory (SAIL); representative astronaut office for Landing / Rollout, T-38 Flight Safety; Kennedy Space Astronaut Staff Support Center (ASP); communications aircraft (CAPCOM) in control missions; representative of the astronaut office for meeting and landing operations, as well as head of the space operations branch. He flew the STS-67 (1995) and spent 400 hours in space. Gregory retired from the Air Force and NASA in the summer of 1999. He later served as vice president of the Qwaltex Business Development Corporation in Tempe, Arizona. Gregory served as the pilot of the STS-67 on the astronomical space research mission with the 7-person crew on the Space Shuttle Endeavor. Departing from the Kennedy Space Center on March 2, 1995, and landing at AFB Edwards on March 18, 1995, the crew set a record of 16 days, 15 hours, 8 minutes and 46 seconds in space, while performing 262 orbital rotations on a journey of approximately 7 million miles, bringing invaluable benefits to the Astro telescope.
