Jerry M. Linenger's Birth Card: The Jack of Diamonds

In the record

Jerry Michael Linenger (born January 16, 1955) is a retired Captain in the United States Navy Medical Corps, and a former NASA astronaut who flew on the Space Shuttle and Space Station Mir. The birth-card coordinate for January 16 is the Jack of Diamonds — a calendar position, not a forecast of a flight assignment.

The Jack of Diamonds coordinate

Jerry M. Linenger's birthday maps to the Jack of Diamonds (The Successful Messenger). Card Blueprints treats that as a 365-day coordinate: solar value = 55 − (2 × month + day), and the year is unused. It is not a prediction about a mission and not a verdict on Jerry M. Linenger. The card's own language, quoted as system copy rather than biography: You try a new approach to value and you finish enough of it to know if it works.

Live Jack of Diamonds meaning page

Jerry M. Linenger in the public record

Born January 16, 1955, and raised in East Detroit, Michigan. Linenger graduated from East Detroit High School 1973. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in bioscience from the United States Naval Academy in 1977, a doctorate in medicine from Wayne State University School of Medicine in 1981, a Master of Science degree in systems management from the University of Southern California in 1988, a Master of Public Health degree in health policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1989 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina in 1989. Linenger is a member of the Alumni Associations of the U.S. Naval Academy, University of Southern California, Wayne State University School of Medicine, and University of North Carolina, the Association of Naval Aviation, the U.S. Navy Flight Surgeons Association, the Aerospace Medicine Association, the American Medical Association, the American College of Preventive Medicine, the Society of U.S. Navy Preventive Medicine Officers, and the American College of Sports Medicine. He is board-certified in preventive medicine.

Summarised from the lead section of the Wikipedia article Jerry M. Linenger (CC BY-SA 4.0). No biographical facts were written for this page beyond that article.

Where the record meets the Jack of Clubs

A card is a calendar coordinate, not a cause. What follows sets one line of the card's own published language beside one sentence of the sourced record, paired by a documented rule. It is a resemblance offered for the reader to weigh — not a claim about Jerry M. Linenger, and not a forecast of a spaceflight.

You bring a new angle and stay long enough for someone to test it. You bring new thinking and inspiration. You're the one who shifts how people think about things. You have the gift of the "aha moment."

Following his first mission, in January 1995, he began training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, in preparation for a long-duration stay aboard the Russian Space Station Mir.

Paired on shared wording: long, stay.

Also on the record

1. Navy Commendation Medal with gold star NASA Space Flight Medals (2) Navy Unit Commendation Meritorious Unit Commendation Navy Battle Effectiveness Award National Defense Service Medal (2) Top graduate, Naval Flight Surgeon Training and Naval Safety Officer's School Elected to Phi Kappa Phi and Alpha Omega Alpha academic honor societies Distinguished Alumni Award, Wayne State University School of Medicine.
2. Gold Medal, Royal Canadian Geographical Society There is a McDonald's in Eastpointe (formerly East Detroit) that was decorated in outer space/Jerry Linenger memorabilia.
3. There was a statue of Linenger next to the cash register.
4. The statue was tragically removed with a remodel in 2020.

Other astronauts with this card

• David R. Scott — NASA Group 3 · Former · 3 flights
• L. Blaine Hammond Jr. — NASA Group 10 · Former · 2 flights
• Michael L. Coats — NASA Group 8 · Former · 3 flights
• Patricia Hilliard Robertson — NASA Group 17 · Deceased · selected, no flights in the Fact Book table
• Walter M. Schirra Jr. — NASA Group 1 · Deceased · 3 flights

FAQ

What is Jerry M. Linenger's birth card?

The Jack of Diamonds. January 16 maps to that card through the public Card Blueprints formula. The year of birth is not used.

Does a birth card predict a spaceflight?

No. These pages are coordinates, not fortune-telling. A birth card names a calendar day in a 52-card year. It does not forecast missions, character, or fate.

Where do Jerry M. Linenger's dates come from?

Birth date 1955-01-16 is the day-precision date on Jerry M. Linenger's NASA astronaut biography (NASA Group 14 · Former · 2 flights), verified against Wikidata P569 (CC0, day precision, Gregorian preferred). The two sources match. Year-only NASA dates and NASA↔Wikidata conflicts are dropped, not guessed. Page hooks and evidence come from the Wikipedia REST summary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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