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Ockels was born March 28, 1946, in Almelo, The Netherlands, but considers Groningen, The Netherlands, to be his hometown. He is married with two children.
Ockels received a doctor of philosophy degree in physics and mathematics from the University of Groningen in 1973. Completed a Ph.D. thesis on the basis of experimental work at the Nuclear Physics Accelerator Institute (K.V.I.) in Groningen in 1978. He is a member of the American Physical SocietyAmerican Physical Society was founded in 1899 and is now with over 40,000 members the world's largest organization of physicists, publishing over a dozen science journals and organizing over 20 science meetings per year. See also Physical Review External and the European Physical Society .
From 1973 to 1978, Dr. Ockels performed experimental investigations at the Nuclear Physics Accelerator Institute in Groningen. His work concerned the gamma-ray decay of nuclear systems directly after formation and the development of a data-handling system involving design of electronics and programming of real-time software . He also contributed to the design and construction of position-sensitive charged particle detectors. While at the K.V.I. Institute, Dr. Ockels supervised the practical work of first-year physics students at the University of Groningen.
In 1978, he was selected by the European Space AgencyThis article is about the European Space Agency. See Entertainment Software Association for another meaning of ESA. The European Space Agency ESA is an inter-governmental organisation dedicated to exploration of space and its exploitation. Its headquarter (ESA) as one of three European payload specialists to train for the Spacelab 1Mission Insignia Mission Statistics Mission:STS-9 Shuttle: Columbia Launch Pad: 39A Launch: November 28, 198316:00:00 UTC Landing: December 12, 198323:47:23 UTC Edwards AFB, California, Runway 17 Duration: 10 days, 7 hours, 47 minutes, 24 seconds Orbit Al mission. In May 1980, under agreement between ESA and NASA, Dr. Ockels was selected to begin the basic astronaut training for mission specialist together with the NASA astronaut candidates at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas. He successfully completed this training in August 1981. He rejoined the Spacelab 1 crew for training as a back-up payload specialist to operate experiments aboard Spacelab 1. This mission of a reusable, scientific research facility built by the European Space Agency (ESA) took place aboard the Space Shuttle in November 1983. Spacelab 1 was a joint NASA/ESA mission.
Dr. Ockels flew as a payload specialist on the crew of STS-61A Challenger ( October 30 to November 6, 1985). STS-61A was the West German D-1 Spacelab mission. It was the first to carry eight crew members, the largest to fly in space, and was also the first in which payload activities were controlled from outside the United States. More than 75 scientific experiments were completed in the areas of physiological sciences, materials science, biology, and navigation. At mission conclusion Dr. Ockels had traveled 2.5 million miles in 110 Earth orbits, and logged over 168 hours in space.