C Gordon Fullerton

Charles Gordon Fullerton was a United States Air Force colonel, a USAF and NASA astronaut, and a research pilot at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, California. His assignments included a variety of flight research and support activities piloting NASA's B-52 launch aircraft, the Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, and other multi-engine and high performance aircraft. Fullerton logged more than 380 hours in space flight, and was a NASA astronaut from September 1969 until November 1986 when he joined the research pilot office at Dryden. In July 1988, he completed a 30-year career with the U.S. Air Force and retired as a colonel. He continued in his position of NASA research pilot as a civilian. He and his wife, and their two children lived in Lancaster, California; he died on August 21, 2013, at the age of 82. He is survived by his wife and two children; he is buried in a private ceremony at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was the pilot on the eight-day STS-3 Space Shuttle orbital flight test mission March 22–30, 1982.