NASA astronaut

DR. ROBERT SATCHER has been named an astronaut candidate by the National Air and Space Administration (NASA). An orthopedic surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago and assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Satcher, 38, was selected from a field of about 2,000 applicants and will be eligible for a space mission following a year of training with NASA.

He joins a class of II astronauts who started training this summer at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Dr. Satcher, a researcher at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University and a specialist in musculoskeletal oncology, will help NASA research why astronauts suffer bone and muscle degeneration during long periods in outer space. A native of Virginia, he received a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.D. from the Harvard University School of Medicine. He is a nephew of former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher. He and his wife, Dr. D'Juanna Satcher, live in Oak Park, III. They have an infant daughter, Daija.