Editing Michael J. Smith (section)

==Astronaut career==
Smith was selected for the astronaut program in May 1980; he served as a commander in the [[Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory]] (SAIL), Deputy Chief of Aircraft Operations Division, Technical Assistant to the Director, Flight Operations Directorate, and was also assigned to the Astronaut Office Development and Test Group. In addition to being pilot on the ''Challenger'', Smith had been slated to pilot a future Shuttle mission (STS-61-I) which had been scheduled for Fall 1986.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.astronautix.com/s/sts-61-i.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161228083319/http://astronautix.com/s/sts-61-i.html|archive-date=December 28, 2016|title=STS-61-I}}</ref> Smith's voice was the last one heard on the flight deck tape recorder aboard ''Challenger''; his final remark was "Uh oh."<ref name=":0" /> 

Following the ''Challenger'' disaster, examination of the recovered vehicle cockpit revealed that three of the crew members' [[Personal Egress Air Pack]]s were activated: those of Smith, mission specialist [[Judith Resnik]], and mission specialist [[Ellison Onizuka]]. The location of Smith's activation switch, on the back side of his seat, means that either Resnik or Onizuka could have activated it for him. Further investigation by Smith's wife, Jane Smith, proved to her that it was Onizuka who activated her husband's switch because Resnik's seat location was too far to reach Smith.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Higginbotham |first=Adam |title=Challenger: a true story of heroism and disaster on the edge of space |date=2024 |publisher=Avid Reader Press |isbn=978-1-9821-7661-7 |location=New York |page=439}}</ref> This is the only evidence available from the disaster that shows Onizuka and Resnik were alive after the cockpit separated from the vehicle. However, if the cabin had lost pressure, the packs alone would not have sustained the crew during the two-minute descent.

While analyzing the wreckage, investigators discovered that several electrical system switches on Smith's right-hand panel had been moved from their usual launch positions. Fellow Astronaut [[Richard Mullane]] wrote, "These switches were protected with lever locks that required them to be pulled outward against a spring force before they could be moved to a new position." Later tests established that neither the force of the explosion, nor the impact with the ocean could have moved them indicating that he made the switch changes, presumably in an attempt to restore electrical power to the cockpit after the crew cabin detached from the rest of the orbiter.<ref name=Mullane>{{Cite book | last = Mullane | first = Mike | author-link = Mike Mullane | title = Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut | publisher = [[Simon and Schuster]] | year = 2006 | page = 245 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=8X7ceB3QEWkC&pg=PA245 | isbn = 978-0-7432-7682-5 }}</ref>