Sherwood Clark “Woody” Spring was born on September 3rd, 1944, in Hartford, Connecticut. He earned a Bachelor of Science in General Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1967 and a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Arizona in 1974, also completing U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in 1976. Selected by NASA in May 1980 as part of Astronaut Group 9, Spring flew one space mission—STS‑61‑B aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis—from November 26 to December 3, 1985, during which he deployed three communications satellites and conducted two spacewalks totaling more than 12 hours. He logged a total of 165 hours in space and served as mission specialist and EVA expert before retiring from NASA in August 1988 and the U.S. Army in July 1994.