Portrait of Ronald Grabe Courtesy of NASA

Ronald Grabe is an American astronaut who was born on June 13, 1945 in New York. Before he became an astronaut, Grabe was a fighter pilot in the Vietnam War. He has logged over 5500 hours of flight time.

Grabe became an astronaut in 1980. He has spent over 387 hours in space on 3 spaceflights.

In 1985, Grabe made his first flight into space aboard shuttle Atlantis. The crew deployed satellites for the Department of Defense during this mission. Grabe made his second flight in 1989 as pilot of STS-30. The crew of this mission launched a space probe to Venus .

Grabe served as commander of the first International Microgravity Laboratory in 1992. An international team of scientists performed several experiments in construction and medicine.