Garriott was born on Nov. 22, 1930, in Enid and graduated from Enid High School, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society. He earned a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 1953.

Serving as an electronics officer in the U.S. Navy from 1953 to 1956, he then received a master of science degree in 1957 from Stanford University and a doctorate in 1960, according to the OHS. He taught electronics and physics at Stanford and was selected as a scientist-astronaut by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in June 1965.

Receiving jet pilot qualification, Garriott completed the U.S. Air Force Pilot Training Program in 1966 and was awarded an honorary doctorate of science degree from Phillips University in 1973.

Garriott's initial space flight on Skylab 3 was from July 28 to Sept. 25, 1973, according to OHS. On this mission, he and his two crew mates conducted major experiments in science and medicine for a total of 1, 427 hours in space. In three separate space walks outside the Skylab, Garriott spent 13 hours and 43 minutes.

On Nov. 28, 1983, Garriott made his second space flight aboard the Space Shuttle STS-9, which included the first flight of the Spacelab 1 international science station. That mission carried the first international shuttle crew and payload specialists. On this flight, he also conducted the first manned amateur radio operations in space. In 1986, Garriott resigned from NASA to go into private business, according to the OHS.

In another tweet, retired astronaut Scott Kelly called Garriott a pioneer of long-duration spaceflight with Skylab.

Garriott was co-founder of Leonardo's Children's Museum along with former wife Helen Walker Garriott.

During his return in 2006, Owen Garriott said his first visit to the building had occurred the 1930s.

“I was a Cub Scout then, and it was a candy factory, ” he said at the time.

Garriott thanked those at a Leonardo's dinner for helping to keep Leonardo’s going and told them it would help Enid’s children.

“This is a place that will help with the growth of the young people for years to come, ” he said.

Garriott and his former wife Helen provided the initial funding for the arts and science museum in Enid, Oklahoma

In 2015, Garriott said he expected mankind to reach Mars within the next 30 years. In the meantime, he said asteroid exploration will increase.

“If you ask kids here (at Leonardo’s) see what they say, ” Owen said about future interest in space exploration. “You will see there is as much enthusiasm as there ever was.”

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, Garriott later worked as a consultant for various aerospace companies. From 1988 to 1993, he served as vice president of space programs at Teledyne Brown Engineering and was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1973 and the NASA Space Flight Medal a decade later. Garriott’s son, video-game developer Richard Garriott, was a pioneering space tourist to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz TMA-13 in 2008.

Highway 412 is named Owen K. Garriott Road in Enid.

Funeral services will be announced soon.
The US astronaut who pioneered the use of Amateur Radio to make contacts from space — Owen K. Garriott, W5LFL — died April 15 at his home in Huntsville, Alabama. He was 88. Garriott’s ham radio activity ushered in the formal establishment of Amateur Radio in space, first as SAREX — the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment, and later as ARISS — Amateur Radio on the International Space Station.

“Owen Garriott was a good friend and an incredible astronaut, ” fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin tweeted. “I have a great sadness as I learn of his passing today. Godspeed Owen.”

An Oklahoma native, Garriott — an electrical engineer — spent 2 months aboard the Skylab space station in 1973 and 10 days aboard Spacelab-1 during a 1983 Space Shuttle Columbia mission. It was during the latter mission that Garriott thrilled radio amateurs around the world by making the first contacts from space. Thousands of hams listened on 2-meter FM, hoping to hear him or to make a contact. Garriott ended up working stations around the globe, among them such notables as the late King Hussein, JY1, of Jordan, and the late US Senator Barry Goldwater, K7UGA. He also made the first CW contact from space. Garriott called hamming from space “a pleasant pastime.”

“I managed to do it in my off-duty hours, and it was a pleasure to get involved in it and to talk with people who are as interested in space as the 100, 000 hams on the ground seemed to be, ” he said in an interview published in the February 1984 edition of QST. “So, it was just a pleasant experience, the hamming in particular, all the way around.”

Although Garriott had planned to operate on ham radio during his 10 days in space, no special provisions were made on board the spacecraft in terms of equipment — unlike the situation today on the International Space Station. Garriott simply used a hand-held transceiver with its antenna in the window of Spacelab-1. His first pass was down the US West Coast.

“[A]s I approached the US, I began to hear stations that were trying to reach me, ” he told QST. “On my very first CQ, there were plenty of stations responding.” His first contact was with Lance Collister, WA1JXN, in Montana.

ARISS ARRL Representative Rosalie White, K1STO, met Garriott when he attended Hamvention, “both times, sitting next to him at Hamvention dinner banquets, ” she recounted. “Once when he was a Special Achievement Award winner, and once with him and [his son] Richard when Richard won the 2009 Special Achievement Award. Owen was unassuming, very smart, kind, and up to date on the latest technology.” Garriott shared a Hamvention Special Achievement Award in 2002 with fellow Amateur Radio astronaut Tony England, W0ORE.

Richard Garriott, W5KWQ, was a private space traveler to the ISS, flown there by the Russian Federal Space Agency, and he also carried ham radio into space.