David C. Leestma
E269784
David C. Leestma is a former NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy captain who flew on multiple Space Shuttle missions and later held leadership roles within NASA’s astronaut office and spaceflight programs.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| David C. Leestma canonical | 3 |
| David Cornell Leestma | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2053974 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: David C. Leestma Context triple: [STS-41-G, crewMember, David C. Leestma]
-
A.
David C. Hilmers
David C. Hilmers is a former NASA astronaut and U.S. Marine Corps officer who flew on multiple Space Shuttle missions before later becoming a physician and academic.
-
B.
Robert A. Burgelman
Robert A. Burgelman is a scholar of strategic management and corporate innovation, known for his influential research on strategy-making processes and long-time professorship at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
-
C.
Karl C. Mamola
Karl C. Mamola is a distinguished physics educator recognized for his significant contributions to physics teaching and learning.
-
D.
Fred J. Koenekamp
Fred J. Koenekamp was an American cinematographer renowned for his work on major films of the 1970s and 1980s, earning an Academy Award and multiple nominations for his visually striking photography.
-
E.
Alexander J. Smits
Alexander J. Smits is a prominent mechanical engineer and fluid dynamicist known for his influential research on turbulent flows and high-speed aerodynamics.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: David C. Leestma Target entity description: David C. Leestma is a former NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy captain who flew on multiple Space Shuttle missions and later held leadership roles within NASA’s astronaut office and spaceflight programs.
-
A.
David C. Hilmers
David C. Hilmers is a former NASA astronaut and U.S. Marine Corps officer who flew on multiple Space Shuttle missions before later becoming a physician and academic.
-
B.
Robert A. Burgelman
Robert A. Burgelman is a scholar of strategic management and corporate innovation, known for his influential research on strategy-making processes and long-time professorship at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
-
C.
Karl C. Mamola
Karl C. Mamola is a distinguished physics educator recognized for his significant contributions to physics teaching and learning.
-
D.
Fred J. Koenekamp
Fred J. Koenekamp was an American cinematographer renowned for his work on major films of the 1970s and 1980s, earning an Academy Award and multiple nominations for his visually striking photography.
-
E.
Alexander J. Smits
Alexander J. Smits is a prominent mechanical engineer and fluid dynamicist known for his influential research on turbulent flows and high-speed aerodynamics.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
NASA astronaut
ⓘ
United States Navy officer ⓘ human ⓘ |
| almaMater | United States Naval Academy ⓘ |
| astronautGroup | NASA Astronaut Group 9 ⓘ |
| astronautSelectionYear | 1980 ⓘ |
| awardReceived |
NASA Exceptional Service Medal
ⓘ
NASA Space Flight Medal ⓘ |
| birthDate | 1949-05-06 ⓘ |
| birthPlace |
Muskegon, Michigan
ⓘ
surface form:
Muskegon, Michigan, United States
|
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| degree | Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Engineering ⓘ |
| educationEndYear | 1971 ⓘ |
| employer |
NASA
ⓘ
surface form:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
United States Navy ⓘ |
| familyName | Leestma ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
aeronautics
ⓘ
human spaceflight ⓘ |
| fullName |
David C. Leestma
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
David Cornell Leestma
|
| gender | male ⓘ |
| givenName | David ⓘ |
| languageSpoken | English ⓘ |
| militaryBranch | United States Navy ⓘ |
| militaryRank | Captain ⓘ |
| navalAviator | true ⓘ |
| notableActivity |
flew ATLAS-1 atmospheric and solar science mission STS-45
ⓘ
flew classified Department of Defense mission STS-28 ⓘ participated in deployment of Earth Radiation Budget Satellite on STS-41-G ⓘ |
| occupation |
astronaut
ⓘ
naval aviator ⓘ |
| positionHeld |
Director of Flight Crew Operations at NASA Johnson Space Center
ⓘ
Manager of the Space Shuttle Program Integration Office ⓘ leadership roles in NASA Astronaut Office ⓘ |
| retiredFrom | NASA Astronaut Corps ⓘ |
| roleInMission |
mission specialist on STS-28
ⓘ
mission specialist on STS-41-G ⓘ mission specialist on STS-45 ⓘ |
| selectedAsAstronautBy | NASA ⓘ |
| serviceStart | United States Navy service beginning in 1971 ⓘ |
| spaceFlight |
STS-45
ⓘ
surface form:
Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-45
Space Shuttle Challenger STS-41-G ⓘ STS-28 ⓘ
surface form:
Space Shuttle Columbia STS-28
|
| spaceMission |
STS-28
ⓘ
STS-41-G ⓘ STS-45 ⓘ |
| totalSpaceFlights | 3 ⓘ |
| totalTimeInSpace | approximately 22 days ⓘ |
| workLocation | Johnson Space Center ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: David C. Leestma Description of subject: David C. Leestma is a former NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy captain who flew on multiple Space Shuttle missions and later held leadership roles within NASA’s astronaut office and spaceflight programs.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
David Cornell Leestma