Kathryn D. Sullivan
- STS 41 -G ( 1984)
- STS -31 ( 1990)
- STS -45 ( 1992)
Kathryn Dwyer " Kathy " Sullivan ( born October 3, 1951 in Paterson, New Jersey, United States) is a former American astronaut. During the Space Shuttle mission STS -41 -G, she took on 11 October 1984 as the first American woman a spacewalk.
Life
Sullivan grew up in California and graduated in 1969 from high school in Woodland Hills near Los Angeles from. She then studied at the University of California Geosciences and spent a year as an exchange student in Norway, where she learned at the Geophysical Institute of the University of Bergen. In 1973, she earned her bachelor's degree with distinction. Five years later, she received a doctorate in geology at the Canadian Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Astronauts activity
Sullivan was still working on her dissertation when she competed at the U.S. space agency NASA as an astronaut in the fall of 1977 and visited the Johnson Space Center (JSC ) for medical tests and interviews. In January 1978 she was presented with the eighth astronaut group as one of 35 new candidates. For the first time women were allowed to submit their application documents. Six were selected as mission specialists, and Sullivan was one of them.
She worked in various support teams for several Shuttle missions, such as in software development, as a takeoff and landing photographer in Beladetests the space shuttle, at checkout and at the starting support at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and in support of EVAs. She was also repeatedly capsule communicator. Sullivan took as a mission specialist on three shuttle missions in part and spent 532 hours in space.
In October 1984 Sullivan undertook as a mission specialist on STS -41 -G their first space flight. After the Erderkundungssatellit ERBS was exposed, she led with David Leestma by an outboard activity. For the first time the refueling of a satellite was simulated. The shuttle flight ended after eight days.
Sullivan's second flight began on April 24, 1990. Principal task of STS -31 was the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, which was originally planned under the designation J - 61 for August 1986. After the Challenger disaster in January 1986 and the resignation of the nominated commander John Young this was replaced by Loren Shriver and postponed the start of the telescope by four years. The Discovery landed after five days on April 29.
STS -45 was Sullivan's last space flight. The ATLAS payload (Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science ) on board the Atlantis examined in spring 1992 with a dozen instruments, the composition of the Earth's atmosphere. The Spacelab mission went to nine days to an end.
Activity according to NASA
In addition to her 15 - year career as an astronaut by NASA Sullivan served as an oceanographic officer with the rank of Captain in the Reserve of the U.S. Navy. Shortly before her resignation from the U.S. space agency was responsible for the scientific management of the U.S. weather and sea NOAA. After three years, she joined in April 1996 as President and Chairman of the interactive science center COSI ( Center of Science and Industry ) in Columbus (Ohio ). Since December 2005 she has been scientific advisor to the COSI. She was also appointed to the National Science Board in 2004, which monitors the tasks of the National Science Foundation. Since 2006, she holds the vice- chairperson of the board.
Awards
Kathryn Sullivan was awarded honorary degrees from Kent State University ( 2002), the Ohio Dominican University (1998), from the Stevens Institute of Technology (1992 ), the State University of New York ( 1991) and Dalhousie University (1985).