Shaw was selected by NASA to be an
astronaut in January 1978 where he served on loan from the Air Force.
Spaceflight missions STS-9 Shaw's first trip to space was as Pilot on
STS-9 Columbia from November 28 to December 8, 1983. Shaw noted that he did not think that Neri Vela noticed the padlock at the time, but that other members of the crew did.
STS-28 Shaw was the commander of
STS-28 Columbia (August 8–13, 1989). The mission included Pilot
Dick Richards and three mission specialists:
Jim Adamson,
Dave Leestma and
Mark Brown. The shuttle carried classified
Department of Defense payloads and a number of
secondary payloads. After 80 orbits of Earth the five-day mission concluded with a dry lake bed landing on Runway 17 at Edwards AFB.
NASA management Shaw left
Johnson Space Center in October 1989 to assume the NASA Headquarters senior executive position of Deputy Director, Space Shuttle Operations, located at the
Kennedy Space Center. As
operations manager, Shaw was responsible for all operational aspects of the
Space Shuttle program and had Level-II authority over shuttle elements from the time the
orbiters left the
Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF), were mated to the
external tank and
solid rocket boosters, transported to the
launch pad, launched, recovered, and returned to the OPF. He was the final authority for launch decisions, and chaired the Mission Management Team. Shaw moved on to serve as the deputy program manager for the shuttle. In addition to the duties he previously held, he also shared with the shuttle program manager full authority and responsibility for the conduct of the shuttle program. He then served as Director, Space Shuttle Operations, with responsibility for the development of all shuttle elements, including the orbiter, external tank, solid rocket boosters, and shuttle main engines, the facilities required to support mission operations, and in the planning necessary to efficiently conduct shuttle operations. ==Aerospace executive==