Former US astronaut, employed 1981–92 at mission control in the Johnson Space Center. He flew on two space shuttle missions: an 80-orbit flight aboard Columbia in August 1989 and a 142-orbit mission aboard Atlantis in August 1991.

Adamson was selected as an astronaut in 1984 and remained at NASA until 1992, after which he continued as a management consultant and member of the NASA Advisory Council. In 1994 he became an executive vice-president of the Lockheed company (later Lockheed Martin), where he was shortly promoted to president and chief executive officer. He then became the first chief operating officer of United Space Alliance in 1995 and president of Allied Signal Technical Services Corporation in 1999. He remained at Allied until his retirement in March 2001.