william edgar thornton (m.d.) (april 14, 1929 – january 11, 2021) was an american nasa astronaut. he was born in faison, north carolina. thornton was a member of the astronaut support crew for the skylab 2, 3, and 4 missions. a veteran of two space flights, thornton spent over 313 hours in space. he was a mission specialist on sts-8 in 1983, and sts-51b in 1985.