Payload Specialists
Gregory Jarvis
Hughes Aircraft engineer flying as Challenger’s payload specialist.
Gregory Jarvis, a satellite communications engineer at Hughes Aircraft, won a company competition to fly as a payload specialist, planning fluid dynamics experiments relevant to satellite fuel systems.
Bumped from two earlier flights by scheduling changes, he was finally assigned to STS-51-L. He was 41 when Challenger was lost. The engineering building at SUNY Buffalo, his alma mater, carries his name.