Shannon Walker

• Soyuz TMA -19 ( 2010)   ISS Expedition 24
• ISS Expedition 25

Shannon Baker Walker ( born June 4, 1965 in Houston, Texas, USA) is an astronaut of the U.S. space agency NASA.

Walker ended 1983, the Westbury High School in Houston (Texas ). At Rice University in Houston in 1987, she received an undergraduate degree in physics. In 1992, she earned a master there and finished the following year their studies with a PhD in space physics.

From 1987, Walker worked as a flight inspector of robotics for U.S. space shuttle for the Rockwell Space Operations Company at the Johnson Space Center (JSC ) in Houston. In the Mission Control Center, she worked at several space shuttle missions as a flight inspector. In 1990, Walker Rockwell absence for three years to continue their studies.

In 1995, Walker for NASA and worked at JSC for the ISS program. She was responsible for the integration of robotics, as well as the coordination with international partners in the ISS. In 1998 she became head of a group in the ISS Mission Evaluation Room to the immediate solution of problems. Her responsibilities there included the support of the flight controllers, as well as the solution of hardware and software problems on the ISS.

In the course of the ISS program, she worked in 1999 in Moscow with the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos and their suppliers. A year later she returned to Houston and took over the technical management of the ISS Mission Evaluation Rooms.

Astronauts activity

Walker was selected in May 2004 as an astronaut contender. The basic training was completed in 2006. Then she prepared herself to a stay aboard the ISS. For the space flight of Soyuz TMA -16 she was in the backup crew. The ISS Expeditions 24 and 25, which lasted from June to November 2010 she was board engineer. The launch of the Soyuz TMA -19 took place on 15 June 2010, landing on November 26, 2010.

From the 20th - 26th October 2011 she was as commander together with the Aquanauts Takuya Onishi ( JAXA ), David Saint- Jacques ( CSA) and Steve Squyres ( Cornell University, University of North Carolina, Wilmington ) for NASA's NEEMO undersea mission - 15th

Private

Walker is married to astronaut Andy Thomas on April 15, 2005.