Lousma Fullerton Columbia

Blue and white text around an illustration of the Columbia space shuttle on a black background with an outer white edge

STS-3 was NASA's third Space Shuttle mission and also the third mission for Space Shuttle Columbia. Astronauts Jack R. Lousma and C. Gordon Fullerton were both crew members of STS-3 which launched its eight-day mission on March 22, 1982 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The mission insignia shows Columbia emerging from a star. The Shuttle Remote Manipulator System which is series of robotic arms used on Space Shuttles is also depicted conducting experiments. 

Lousma was the Commander and  Fullerton was the pilot of STS-3. Lousma was an American aeronautical engineer who was on the support crew for Apollo 9, 10, and 13 and was the recipient of the CAPCOM “Houston, we’ve had a problem” from Apollo 13. He became the STS-3 Commander when STS-2 Commander Fred Haise retired from Nasa. Fullerton was a United States Air Force colonel and was on the support crew for Apollo 14, 15, 16, and 17 missions. He had previous experience co-piloting Space Shuttle Enterprise alongside Fred Haise in a couple of test programs in 1977.