Gary E. Payton

E749107

United States Air Force officer aerospace engineer astronaut human

Gary E. Payton is a former U.S. Air Force officer and astronaut who flew as a payload specialist on the Space Shuttle and later held senior positions in military space and defense programs.

Try in SPARQL Jump to: Surface forms Disambiguation Statements Elicitation Referenced by

All labels observed (2)

Label	Occurrences
Gary E. Payton canonical	5
Gary Payton	1

How this entity was disambiguated

This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8674139 — 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: Gary E. Payton
Context triple: [STS-51-C, crewMember, Gary E. Payton]

A. Gary Payton
Gary Payton is a Hall of Fame NBA point guard renowned for his elite perimeter defense, playmaking, and long tenure as the emotional leader of the Seattle SuperSonics.
B. Khary Payton
Khary Payton is an American actor and voice actor best known for voicing Cyborg in DC's animated Teen Titans projects and for his role as King Ezekiel on The Walking Dead.
C. Shawn Kemp
Shawn Kemp is a former NBA power forward best known for his explosive athleticism and highlight-reel dunks during the 1990s, particularly with the Seattle SuperSonics.
D. Houston Lillard
Houston Lillard is the brother of NBA star Damian Lillard and a former collegiate football quarterback who has worked as a coach and trainer.
E. Kevin Terry
Kevin Terry is an American soccer referee best known for officiating at the highest levels of U.S. professional soccer, including Major League Soccer championship matches.
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: Gary E. Payton
Target entity description: Gary E. Payton is a former U.S. Air Force officer and astronaut who flew as a payload specialist on the Space Shuttle and later held senior positions in military space and defense programs.

A. Gary Payton
Gary Payton is a Hall of Fame NBA point guard renowned for his elite perimeter defense, playmaking, and long tenure as the emotional leader of the Seattle SuperSonics.
B. Khary Payton
Khary Payton is an American actor and voice actor best known for voicing Cyborg in DC's animated Teen Titans projects and for his role as King Ezekiel on The Walking Dead.
C. Shawn Kemp
Shawn Kemp is a former NBA power forward best known for his explosive athleticism and highlight-reel dunks during the 1990s, particularly with the Seattle SuperSonics.
D. Houston Lillard
Houston Lillard is the brother of NBA star Damian Lillard and a former collegiate football quarterback who has worked as a coach and trainer.
E. Kevin Terry
Kevin Terry is an American soccer referee best known for officiating at the highest levels of U.S. professional soccer, including Major League Soccer championship matches.
F. None of above. chosen

Statements (43)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	United States Air Force officer ⓘ aerospace engineer ⓘ astronaut ⓘ human ⓘ
activity	participated in classified Department of Defense payload operations in orbit ⓘ
affiliation	U.S. national security space community ⓘ
countryOfCitizenship	United States of America ⓘ
education	background in engineering or a related technical field ⓘ
employer	United States Air Force ⓘ United States Air Force Space Command ⓘ linked to: Air Force Space Command United States Department of Defense ⓘ linked to: Department of Defense
familyName	Payton ⓘ
fieldOfWork	defense space systems ⓘ military space programs ⓘ space operations ⓘ
genreOfActivity	human spaceflight ⓘ national security space ⓘ
givenName	Gary ⓘ
hasExperience	defense acquisition for space systems ⓘ military satellite programs ⓘ space operations management ⓘ
hasHonor	military decorations ⓘ
languageSpoken	English ⓘ
militaryBranch	United States Air Force ⓘ
militaryRank	colonel ⓘ
name	Gary E. Payton ⓘ
notableFor	flying as a payload specialist on a classified Department of Defense Space Shuttle mission ⓘ holding senior positions in U.S. military space and defense programs ⓘ
notableWork	contributions to U.S. military and national security space capabilities ⓘ
occupation	aerospace program manager ⓘ astronaut ⓘ military officer ⓘ
partOf	U.S. astronaut corps for payload specialists ⓘ
positionHeld	senior leader in U.S. military space programs ⓘ senior official in defense space acquisition and policy ⓘ
residence	United States ⓘ linked to: United States of America
roleOnMission	payload specialist ⓘ
sector	defense ⓘ space ⓘ
serviceBranch	United States Air Force ⓘ
spaceflightParticipant	Space Shuttle program ⓘ linked to: NASA Space Shuttle program
spaceMission	STS-51C ⓘ linked to: STS-51-C
spaceShuttleFlown	Space Shuttle Discovery ⓘ