Judith Resnik

  • STS -41 -D ( 1984)
  • STS 51 -L ( 1986)

Arlene Judith " Judy " Resnik ( born April 5, 1949 in Akron, Ohio; † January 28, 1986 in Cape Canaveral, Florida) was an American astronaut who died in the Challenger disaster.

Judy was the daughter of Marvin and Sarah Resnik. Although her parents were Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union, Resnik had never lived the Jewish faith. First they visited in the Akron Fairlawn Elementary and came to the sixth grade on the Simon Perkins Junior High School. She graduated in 1966 at the Firestone High School. That same year, her parents divorced. After that, she lived for a short time with her father, an optician until she received her degree.

After graduating from high school Resnik attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), which she left in 1970 with a degree in electrical engineering. She then worked at RCA in Moorestown (New Jersey) and later in Springfield (Virginia), where she worked on radar systems as well as sounding rocket and telemetry systems for NASA, among others.

In 1974 moved Resnik, who was an excellent pianist, at the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in Bethesda (Maryland). She also wrote to the University of Maryland on her doctoral thesis in electrical engineering, graduating with her ​​doctorate in 1977. Immediately thereafter, she took a job in product development of Xerox in California.

NASA activities

NASA had begun in 1976 to seek the first astronauts for the shuttle program, which for the first time in the U.S. aerospace and women were taken into account. About 8000 Americans made ​​themselves at NASA. The interviews were from the summer of 1977 at the Johnson Space Center (JSC ) in Texas instead - Resnik was invited in November. She was able to prevail and was featured along with 34 other candidates in January 1978 to the public. At 28, she was one of the youngest.

In the spring of 1983, Resnik was selected for her first flight. She was the first Jewish woman and second American woman in space when she launched aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in the fall of 1984. The crew of STS- 41 -D was out of the orbit experienced commander only of newcomers. During the week-long flight, three satellites were exposed and tested solar panels on their suitability for space.

Just five months later, Resnik was set up for her second flight as a mission specialist on STS -51 -L. In this mission should be observed after exposure of a communications satellite in the TDRS - series, which exploiting dividend at perigee Halley's comet. For this was the SPARTAN satellite on board, should be discontinued on the third day of flying. As the shuttle launched on 28 January 1986, it broke apart only 73 seconds later. In this case, all seven astronauts were killed. ( See main article: STS -51 -L)

Resnik was divorced and had no children. In honor of the astronaut among others, a lunar crater on the moon back and a crater on the planet Venus was named after her, as well as the asteroid ( 3356 ) Resnik. In addition, a dormitory in her alma mater, a lecture hall at the University of Maryland and an elementary school in Gaithersburg (Maryland) to their name.

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