Steven Nagel was born in Canton on October 27, 1946. After graduating from Canton High School, Nagel received a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois and joined the Air Force. He logged nearly 10,000 hours of flight time and served a one-year tour as flight instructor in Southeast Asia in 1971 and 1972 while serving in the military.

After receiving his master’s degree in mechanical engineering, Nagel joined NASA and became an astronaut in the summer of 1979. He first entered space aboard the Discovery on June 27, 1985, and would return three other times aboard the Challenger in 1985, Atlantis in 1991 and Columbia in 1993.

In total, Nagel spent 30 days, 1 hour and 34 minutes in space. He orbited the earth more than 100 times, performed repair missions on broken satellites and assisted in numerous scientific experiments and tests.

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