Paul J. Weitz

Paul Weitz was an American naval officer and aviator, test pilot and NASA astronaut, born on 25 July 1932 and died in October 2017. He flew into space twice. He was pilot on Skylab 2, the first crewed mission to the Skylab station, in 1973, where the crew carried out the repairs that freed the station’s damaged solar array and made it habitable. He later commanded STS-6, the maiden flight of the Space Shuttle Challenger, in 1983. Wikidata records 33 days and 1 hour in space across his flights. His commander on Skylab 2 was Pete Conrad, and the science pilot was Joseph Kerwin.

Born: 25 July 1932
Died: 23 October 2017
Country: United States
Flights: 3: Skylab (1973), Skylab 2 (1973), STS-6 (1983)
Time in space: 33 days 1 hours

Data as of 2 November 2026. Source: Wikidata (CC0). All people who have flown in space.

Events

Skylab
- Apollo spacecraft, Saturn V
Skylab was a Saturn V third stage turned into a house. Sixty-three seconds after liftoff the thin shield that was meant to protect it from meteoroids and sunlight tore away, taking one of its two solar arrays with it.
8 videos
- The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered
- Retro Space HD
- Hubbell Power Systems