Portrait of Dale Gardner Courtesy of NASA

Dale Gardner is an American astronaut who was born on November 8, 1948, in Minnesota. Before he became an astronaut, Gardner was a Naval pilot.

Dale Gardner became an astronaut in 1978. He has spent over 337 hours in space on 2 spaceflights.

In 1983, Gardner flew aboard STS-8. The crew deployed a satellite during this mission. Gardner made his second flight in 1984 aboard Mission 51-A. Gardner performed 12 hours of spacewalks during the first salvage mission in space history.