WINONA – A celebration will be held Saturday, October 26 to honor the life and legacy of the late Colonel Donald Peterson, an American Astronaut.
A Winona native, Peterson was a mission specialist on the STS-6 on board Challenger, which launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 4, 1983. During the mission, Peterson and a fellow crew member conducted a spacewalk to test the new suite, the Shuttle Airlock, and tools and techniques for construction and repair outside a spacecraft.
With the completion of this flight, Peterson logged four hours and 15 minutes in extravehicular activity and a total of 120 hours in space.
Peterson passed away on May 27, 2018, at his home in Texas.
Saturday’s celebration will include a brunch reception at 9:30 a.m. in the gymnasium of Winona Christian School, followed by a program at 11 a.m. in the auditorium at Winona High School, Peterson’s Alma Mater. The community is invited to attend both events.
“It was the time for Winona to pay homage to a national hero.” said Sue Stidham, a member of the planning committee and director of Winona Main Street and the Montgomery County Economic Development Partnership.
The family members of Peterson are planning to return to Winona for the celebration, and they will not only be attending Saturday’s brunch and program, but the homecoming football game at Winona High School, where they will be recognized prior to kickoff.
Stidham said the community support of this celebration has been very exciting, and she is particularly excited that the schools are teaching their students about Peterson, other astronauts, and the space program.
“After watching the video of Col. Peterson’s mission, I saw that a million things could have gone wrong but it didn’t,” Stidham said. “I do realize now what a true hero he was. He literally put his life on the line so we could advance our knowledge of space and the tools we used to go to space. He was a very brave and intelligent man, and he was from Winona, Mississippi.”
For five days and 23 minutes, Peterson traveled at 18,000 miles an hour, orbiting the earth. The mission of the voyage was to launch tracking and data relay satellites which provide communications between objects in orbit and those on the ground. In the process, he got to do a spacewalk to test the team’s ability to repair the shuttle while it orbited 170 miles above the earth.
In a 2011 interview with The Winona Times, Peterson said he never experienced problems in working in zero gravity.
“We worked in space suits so we could work outside the spacecraft in a vacuum,” Peterson said. “The suits have to be pressurized because most people live at sea level. If you suddenly take that pressure away, the nitrogen in the body would literally explode.”
According to a 2002 interview for a Nasa Oral History, Peterson and Mission Specialist Story Musgrave were able to work outside the shuttle for four hours without being tethered to the vehicle. The two wore special backpacks that allowed them more mobility than in past spacewalks.
Peterson was born in Winona on October 22, 1933, to Pete and Mabel Peterson and was raised in a house on Summit Street.
He graduated from Winona High School, and upon graduation, he was selected by then-Congressman Joe Abernathy to take the entrance exam to the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Peterson said he did so well on the exam, Abernathy “wrangled me” an appointment to West Point.
After completing the military academy, Peterson joined the U.S. Air Force and was accepted to the Air Force Institute of Technology to work on a program developing nuclear automobiles. After the program was canceled, Peterson volunteered to go to the Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base.
After he graduated from the Aerospace Research Pilot School, Peterson was assigned to the Mann Orbiting Laboratory, a program that was trying to develop spacecraft to fly over countries to take pictures, however, the program was eventually canceled.
In 1970, Peterson was reassigned to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), where he worked in Guidance, Navigation, and Control in the development and construction of the space shuttle. In 1981, the shuttle Columbia took flight, and from then, NASA launched several other successful flights.
Peterson was 52-years-old when he went on his mission to space.
Another Winona native, Bill Lee, a historian of military history as well as that of Montgomery County, will give the keynote address for Saturday’s program, followed by a few words from Peterson’s son, Donald Peterson, Jr.
“First of all, I appreciate Winona Christian School for their hard work in organizing the brunch reception which will extend our hospitality to those coming in from out of town,” Stidham said. “I also want to thank Winona High School for allowing us to honor Col. Peterson at his alma mater. All of our schools have been wonderful in educating students about Peterson, his mission, and his NASA legacy.”
For more information about the Peterson celebration, contact Stidham at 662-283-4828.
