Harrison Liu

Harrison "Harry" Liu was the first Asian American astronaut of NASA and the lunar module pilot of Apollo 24.

History[]

Liu was part of an orbital mission with Apollo 19, together with Fred Haise^W and Ellen Waverly, sometime before 1974. He was selected for Apollo 24, together with Deke Slayton and mission commander Ellen, now Wilson. The mission started mid December 1974 and was supposed to relieve Ed Baldwin, who was stuck on the Moon since summer.^[1]

In Earth's orbit, when Apollo 24 was supposed to ignite burn for TLI, nothing happened. Diagnosis revealed a faulty flight control computer (FCC), which could not be repaired but had to be replaced. Houston repurposed Apollo 25 to deliver and install a new FCC into 24's instrument unit (IU).

After the successful repair, during a self-test sequence, the Apollo 24 S-IVB did an uncommanded burn, while Harry, Deke and Molly Cobb were still outside, tethered to the ship. Liu was killed when the acceleration of the stage caused his tether to unravel and swing him into the J-2's exhaust, incinerating him instantly.^[2]