Susan Kilrain

• STS -83 (1997)
• STS -94 (1997)

Susan Leigh Still - Kilrain ( born October 24, 1961 in Augusta, Georgia, USA as Susan Leigh Still ) is a former American astronaut.

Training

Still - Kilrain visited in Natick, Massachusetts to 1979 Walnut Hill High School. In 1982, she graduated in aeronautical engineering at Embry -Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida with a bachelor's degree. She then attended the Georgia Institute of Technology, from which she received in 1985 a Master's in Aeronautics and Astronautics. During her studies she worked on wind tunnels at Lockheed in Marietta, Georgia.

Military career

Susan Still came in 1985 with the United States Navy and Marine pilot in 1987. She was an instructor at the TA -4J Skyhawk and later flew Grumman EA -6A Electric Intruder for the Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 33 in Key West, Florida. She later became a test pilot and trained on the Grumman F-14.

Spaceman activity

Still - Kilrain was selected in December 1994 to the 15th NASA group and formed in March 1995 as a shuttle pilot. In May 1996, she was nominated as a pilot for the mission STS -83.

Still - Kilrain launched on 4 April 1997 with the space shuttle Columbia for their first space flight. Between selection to the astronaut group and first flight were only two years and four months. No NASA astronaut before and after it had achieved this in a shorter time, besides, she was after Eileen Collins only the second woman as a shuttle pilot.

Susan Still Kilrain - took on this mission the pilots nobility of Kara Hultgren into space, who wanted to be an astronaut and also was killed in an accident in October 1994, on approach to the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln with their F-14 Tomcat.

During the flight, which was originally designed for 15 days, problems occurred in one of the fuel cells of the space shuttle, so the mission was aborted and the Columbia landed already after just four days.

NASA decided to start the flight with the same team and with the same mission profile again. Thus came Still - Kilrain already on 1 July 1997 with STS -94 to its second flight. Still - Kilrain and her teammates thus hold the record for the shortest time between two space flights.

Still - Kilrain later worked in the legal department of the NASA Headquarters in Washington. She left NASA in December 2002 and the U.S. Navy in June 2005.

Private

Susan Still Kilrain, is married to Colin James Kilrain and has a son.