His three space shuttle flights include the first flight of Spacelab on board the shuttle Endeavour in June 1993. Microgravity experiments were conducted during the mission and Low, who was the payload commander, carried out nearly six hours of extravehicular activity. He logged 714 hours in space, leaving NASA in 1996 to join Orbital Sciences Corporation. He worked as an engineer in NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1980 until 1984, when he was selected as an astronaut.