Richard James Hieb (born September 21, 1955 in Jamestown, North Dakota) is a former NASA astronaut and a veteran of three Space Shuttle missions.

His mother was a long time elementary school teacher at Lincoln Elementary in Jamestown, North Dakota and his father was a transport driver before retiring and operating a small business buying and selling antiques and specialty items where he was a well-known figure at sales around eastern North Dakota.

Selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate in June 1985, Hieb qualified July 1986 for assignment as a mission specialist on future Space Shuttle flight crews.

Hieb first flew on the crew of STS-39, an unclassified Department of Defense mission which launched on April 28, 1991, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

During that mission, Hieb along with astronaut Pierre Thuot, performed three spacewalks which resulted in the capture and repair of the stranded Intelsat VI F3 communications satellite.

The STS-49 record endured for 9 years until being surpassed by James Voss and Susan Helms on the International Space Station, and now stands in second place for EVA duration.