Shannon Lucid | |
|---|---|
 Lucidc. 2004 | |
| Born | Shannon Matilda Wells (1943-01-14)January 14, 1943 (age 83) Shanghai, Republic of China |
| Education | |
| Awards | |
| Space career | |
| NASA astronaut | |
Time in space | 223 days, 2 hours and 50 minutes |
| Selection | NASA Group 8 (1978) |
| Missions | |
Mission insignia |         |
| Scientific career | |
| Thesis | Effect of Cholera Toxin on Phosphorylation and Kinase Activity of Intestinal Epithelial Cells and Their Brush Borders (1973) |
| Doctoral advisor | Chadwick Cox |
Shannon Matilda Wells Lucid (néeWells; born January 14, 1943) is an Americanbiochemist and retiredNASA astronaut. She has flown in space five times, including a prolonged mission aboard the Russian space stationMir in 1996, and is the only American woman to have stayed onMir. From 1996 to 2007, Lucid held the record for the longest duration spent in space by an American and by a woman. She was awarded theCongressional Space Medal of Honor in December 1996, making her the tenth person and the first woman to be accorded the honor.
Lucid is a graduate of theUniversity of Oklahoma, where she earned abachelor's degree in chemistry in 1963, a master's degree inbiochemistry in 1970, and aPhD in biochemistry in 1973. She was a laboratory technician at theOklahoma Medical Research Foundation from 1964 to 1966, a research chemist atKerr-McGee from 1966 to 1968, and a research associate at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation from 1973 to 1978.
In 1978, Lucid was recruited by NASA forastronaut training withNASA Astronaut Group 8, the first class of astronauts to include women. She flew in space five times: onSTS-51-G,STS-34,STS-43,STS-58, and her mission toMir, for which Lucid traveled to the space station onSpace Shuttle Atlantis withSTS-76 and returned six months later withSTS-79. She was theNASA Chief Scientist from 2002 to 2003 and acapsule communicator (CAPCOM) atMission Control for numerousSpace Shuttle missions, includingSTS-135, the final mission of theSpace Shuttle program. Lucid announced her retirement from NASA in 2012.
Shannon Matilda Wells was born inShanghai, Republic of China, on January 14, 1943,[1][2] the daughter of Joseph Oscar Wells, aBaptist missionary, and his wife Myrtle, a missionary nurse. Due to America'songoing war with Japan, when she was six weeks old, the family was detained by theJapanese, who had occupied Shanghai at the time. The three of them were imprisoned in aninternment camp but were released during aprisoner exchange later that year. They returned to the United States on the Swedishocean linerMS Gripsholm and stayed in the US until the end of the war.[3][4][5]
After the war ended, the family returned to China but decided to leave again after theChinese Communist Revolution in 1949.[3] They moved toLubbock, Texas, and then settled inBethany, Oklahoma, the family's original hometown, where Wells graduated fromBethany High School in 1960.[5] She was fascinated by stories of theAmerican frontier and wanted to become an explorer. She concluded that she had been born too late for this, but discovered the works ofRobert Goddard, the Americanrocket scientist, and decided that she could become a space explorer. Wells sold her bicycle to buy a telescope so she could look at the stars,[6] and began building her own rockets. Shortly after graduating from high school, Wells earned herprivate pilot's license with instrument and multi-engine ratings and bought a preownedPiper PA-16 Clipper that she used to fly her father torevival meetings. She applied for jobs as a commercial pilot, but was rejected, as women were not yet accepted for training as commercial pilots in the United States.[3][5][7]
Wells attendedWheaton College inIllinois, where she majored inchemistry. She then transferred to theUniversity of Oklahoma, where she earned herbachelor's degree in chemistry in 1963. She was a teaching assistant in the University of Oklahoma's Department of Chemistry from 1963 to 1964 and a senior laboratory technician at theOklahoma Medical Research Foundation inOklahoma City, from 1964 to 1966. She then became a research chemist atKerr-McGee, an oil company there.[3][5] At Kerr-McGee she met Michael F. Lucid, a fellow research chemist. They married in 1967,[8] and their first child, Kawai Dawn, was born in 1968.[3][9]
Afterward, Lucid left Kerr-McGee and returned to the University of Oklahoma as graduate assistant in the Department of Biochemistry andMolecular Biology, where she pursued a master's degree inbiochemistry. She sat for her final examinations two days after the birth of her second daughter, Shandara Michelle, in 1970.[3][9] She went on to earn her PhD in biochemistry in 1973, writing her thesis on theEffect of Cholera Toxin on Phosphorylation and Kinase Activity of Intestinal Epithelial Cells and Their Brush Borders under the supervision of A. Chadwick Cox.[10][11] She then returned to the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation as a research associate.[2] A third child, Michael Kermit, was born in 1975.[9]
On July 8, 1976, theNational Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) issued a call for applications for at least 15 pilot candidates and 15mission specialist candidates. For the first time, new selections would be consideredastronaut candidates rather than fully-fledgedastronauts until they finished training and evaluation, which was expected to take two years.[12] The enactment of theEqual Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 reinforced the promise of theCivil Rights Act of 1964 to address the persistent and entrenchedemployment discrimination against women,African Americans andminority groups in American society. While they had never been explicitly precluded from becoming NASA astronauts, none had ever been selected either.[13][14] This time, minorities and women were encouraged to apply.[12] Lucid's was one of the first of 8,079 applications received.[15][16]
As one of 208 finalists,[16] Lucid was invited to come to theJohnson Space Center (JSC) inHouston, Texas, for a week of interviews, evaluations and examinations, commencing on August 29, 1977. She was part of the third group of twenty applicants to be interviewed, and the first one that included women. The eight women in the group includedRhea Seddon,Anna Sims,Nitza Cintron andMillie Hughes-Wiley.[17] On January 16, 1978, NASA announced the names of the 35 successful candidates, of whom 20 were mission specialist candidates.[16] Of the six women in this first class with female astronauts, Lucid was the only one who was a mother at the time of being selected.[18]George Abbey, the Director of Flight Crew Operations at JSC and the chairman of the selection panel,[16] later stated that this was not taken into consideration during the selection process.[5]
Group 8's name for itself was "TFNG". The abbreviation was deliberately ambiguous; for public purposes, it stood for "Thirty-Five New Guys", but within the group itself, it was known to stand for the military phrase, "the fucking new guy", used to denote newcomers to amilitary unit.[19] Much of the first eight months of their training was in the classroom.[20] Because there were so many of them, the TFNGs did not fit easily into the existing classrooms, so for classroom instruction they were split into two groups, red and blue, led byRick Hauck andJohn Fabian respectively.[21] Classroom training was given on a wide variety of subjects, including an introduction to theSpace Shuttle program, space flight engineering, astronomy,orbital mechanics, ascent and entryaerodynamics and space flightphysiology. Those accustomed to military and academic environments were surprised that subjects were taught, but not tested.[20] Training in geology, a feature of the training of earlier classes, was continued, but the locations visited changed because the focus was now on observations of the Earth rather than the Moon.[22]
Astronaut candidates had to complete survival training, be able to swim andscuba dive, and master the basics of aviation safety, as well as the specifics of the spacecraft they would have to fly.[23] Water survival training was conducted with the3613th Combat Crew Training Squadron atHomestead Air Force Base in Florida andparasail training atVance Air Force Base in Oklahoma.[24] On August 31, 1979, NASA announced that the 35 astronaut candidates had completed their training and evaluation, and were now officially astronauts, qualified for selection on space flight crews.[25] Their training, which had been expected to last eighteen to twenty-four months, had been completed in fourteen. That of subsequent classes was shortened to twelve months.[26]
Each of the new astronauts specialized in certain aspects of the Space Shuttle program, providing astronaut support and input. Lucid was involved withSpacelab 1 crew training, and the development of theShuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) at JSC andRockwell International's Flight Systems Laboratory (FSL) inDowney, California. She also worked on theHubble Space Telescope and rendezvous proximity operations.[27] She was atEdwards Air Force Base as a member of the exchange crew for the landing of theSTS-5 mission in November 1982. The exchange crew took over from the flight crew after they had landed, and handled the post-flight activities.[28] She was an astronaut support person (ASP) at theKennedy Space Center (KSC) for theSTS-8 mission in August 1983.[29] Also known as a "Cape Crusader", an ASP was an astronaut who supported vehicle and payload testing at KSC, and strapped the flight crew into their seats before takeoff.[30] For theSTS-41-B mission in February 1984 she was the backup ASP and once again a member of the exchange crew.[31]
On November 17, 1983, Lucid was assigned to her first flight, the STS-51-A mission. Tentatively scheduled for October 24, 1984, the mission would be commanded byDaniel Brandenstein, with pilotJohn O. Creighton and Lucid, Fabian andSteven R. Nagel as mission specialists. She would be the last of the six women in the TFNG group to fly.[32] Due to slippages, the crew was reassigned to the STS-51-D mission in August 1984. This mission had a different payload, and it was scheduled to be launched on March 18, 1985.[33] The mission was scrubbed just three weeks before the launch date.[34] In May 1985 the crew was reassigned to theSTS-51-G mission. A French astronaut,Patrick Baudry, and a Saudi Arabian prince,Sultan bin Salman Al Saud were assigned aspayload specialists.[35]
STS-51-G lifted off fromLaunch Complex 39A at KSC in theSpace Shuttle Discovery on June 17, 1985. The seven-day mission was to deploy three communications satellites:Morelos I for Mexico,Arabsat-1B for theArab League, andTelstar 303 for the United States.[36] The satellites were launched on successive days during the first three days of the mission. Lucid and Fabian operated theRemote Manipulator System (RMS) to deploy the satellites, which were boosted intogeostationary transfer orbits byPayload Assist Module (PAM-D) booster stages.[37]
Lucid also used the RMS to deploy the Spartan (Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy) satellite, which performed 17 hours ofX-ray astronomy experiments while separated from the Space Shuttle, while Fabian handled its retrieval 45 hours later.[37][38] In addition to the satellite deployments, the crew activated the Automated Directional Solidification Furnace (ADSF), sixGetaway Specials and participated in biomedical experiments.Discovery landed atEdwards Air Force Base in California on June 24. The mission was accomplished in 112 orbits of the Earth, traveling 4.7 million kilometers (2.9 million miles) in 169 hours and 39 minutes (just over one week).[36]
The publicity tour that usually followed a Space Shuttle mission included a trip to Saudi Arabia. Married women were not permitted to travel to Saudi Arabia without their husband, and Michael Lucid was unavailable, so Lucid decided not to go. A devout Christian, she disapproved of the way Saudi Arabia treated women. When the rest of the crew arrived inRiyadh, her absence was noted. This prompted a call from KingFahd of Saudi Arabia to PresidentRonald Reagan. Lucid went to Saudi Arabia and shook hands with the king, but she stayed for only one day.[39][40] For the visit to be possible, Lucid was designated by the Saudi Arabian government as a honorary man.[41]
After the STS-51-G mission, Lucid was assigned toCapsule Communicator (CAPCOM) duty. She served as the CAPCOM for theSTS-51-J mission in October 1985,[42] theSTS-61-A mission in November 1985,[43]STS-61-B mission in November and December 1985,[44] and theSTS-61-C mission in January 1986.[45] The January 1986Space ShuttleChallenger disaster later that month halted Space Shuttle operations for 32 months while NASA conducted investigations and remediation. Flight crews were stood down. One consequence of the disaster was theGalileo project, an unmanned probe to Jupiter, which lost both itslaunch window and its ride due to the cancelation of theShuttle-Centaur project.[46]
On November 30, 1988, NASA announced thatGalileo would be deployed by theSpace Shuttle Atlantis on theSTS-34 mission, which was scheduled for October 12, 1989. The mission was commanded byDonald E. Williams, with pilotMichael J. McCulley and Lucid,Ellen S. Baker andFranklin Chang-Diaz as mission specialists.[47] The launch was delayed for five days due to a faultySpace Shuttle main engine controller, and then for an additional day due to bad weather.Atlantis lifted off from KSC on October 18.[48]
As the lead mission specialist, Lucid was primarily responsible for theGalileo spacecraft,[49] and initiated its deployment by pressing a button to separateGalileo fromAtlantis.[50]Galileo was successfully deployed six and a half hours into the flight using theInertial Upper Stage (IUS). As this was much less powerful than the Shuttle-Centaur upper stage,Galileo had to employ agravity assist from Venus and two from Earth, and it took six years instead of two for theGalileo to reach Jupiter.[49][48] "Both Ellen and I sighed a great sigh of relief, because we figured Galileo was not our concern at that point, because we'd gotten rid of it," Lucid reported. "Happiness was an empty payload bay and we got happier and happier as the IUS and Galileo went further away from us."[51]
The mission also conducted a five-day Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SSBUV) experiment carried in the cargo bay, and experiments related to growth hormone crystal distribution (GHCD) and polymer morphology (PM), a sensor technology experiment (STEX), a mesoscale lightning experiment (MLE), a Shuttle Student Involvement Program (SSIP) experiment that investigated ice crystal formation in zero gravity, and a ground-basedAir Force Maui Optical Station (AMOS) experiment. Lucid and Chang-Diaz operated the PM experiment, which used a laptop computer to collect two gigabytes of data from aninfrared spectrometer to study the effects of microgravity on minerals. The crew filmed their activities with anIMAX camera. The mission completed 79 orbits of the Earth, traveling 3.2 million kilometers (2 million miles) in 119 hours and 39 minutes before landing at Edwards Air Force Base on October 23.[48][52]
In May 1990 NASA announced that Lucid was assigned to the crew of theSTS-43 mission, which was scheduled to be flown inDiscovery in April 1991. The mission was commanded byJohn E. Blaha, withMichael A. Baker as the pilot and Lucid,G. David Low, andJames C. Adamson as the mission specialists. The objective of the mission was to deployTDRS-E, a communications satellite that would form part of NASA'sTracking and Data Relay Satellite System.[53]
The launch date was postponed to July 23, and the orbiter was changed toAtlantis. The launch was delayed by a day to replace a faulty integrated electronics assembly that controlled the separation of the orbiter and theexternal tank, and then the countdown was halted with five hours to go due to a faulty main engine controller, and the launch was postponed to August 1. Unfavorable weather prompted yet another 24-hour delay.Atlantis lifted off on August 2.[54]
The crew deployed TDRS-E without incident using the IUS.[54] The crew also conducted 32 physical, material and life science experiments, mostly related to theExtended Duration Orbiter andSpace StationFreedom.[2] These included experiments with the Space Station Heat Pipe Advanced Radiator Element II (SHARE II), the Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultra-Violet (SSBUV) instrument, Tank Pressure Control Equipment (TPCE), and Optical Communications Through Windows (OCTW). There was also an auroral photography experiment (APE-B), a protein crystal growth experiment, testing of the bioserve / instrumentation technology associates materials dispersion apparatus (BIMDA), investigations into polymer membrane processing (IPMP), the space acceleration measurement system (SAMS), a solid surface combustion experiment (SSCE), use of the ultraviolet plume imager (UVPI); and the Air Force Maui optical site (AMOS) experiment.[55]
Atlantis performed 142 orbits of the Earth, traveling 6.0 million kilometers (3.7 million miles) in 213 hours and 21 minutes.[54] STS-43 was the eighth mission to land at KSC, and the first one scheduled to do so sinceSTS-61-C in January 1986.[55]
On December 6, 1991, Lucid was assigned toSTS-58, the Spacelab Life Sciences 2 (SLS-2) mission. This was the second mission dedicated to the study of human and animal physiology on Earth and in spaceflight. The techniques developed for this flight were intended to be precursors of those to be conducted on the Space StationFreedom and subsequent long-duration space flights. Fellow TFNGRhea Seddon was designated as the missionpayload commander, withDavid Wolf, like Seddon a medical doctor, as the other mission specialist.[56] Originally scheduled as one mission, the number of Spacelab Life Sciences objectives and experiments had grown until it was split into two missions,[57] the first of which,STS-40/SLS-1, was flown in June 1991.[58] The rest of the crew were not named until August 27, 1992. Blaha was designated the mission commander, with pilotRichard A. Searfoss andWilliam S. McArthur Jr. as a fourth mission specialist.[59] A payload specialist,Martin J. Fettman, was assigned to the mission on October 29.[60]
TheSpace Shuttle Columbia with SLS-2 on board lifted off from KSC on October 18, 1993. During the fourteen-day flight the crew performed neurovestibular, cardiovascular, cardiopulmonary, metabolic and musculoskeletal medical experiments on themselves and 48 rats.[61] The crew investigated the phenomenon of bone density loss. They also studied the effects of microgravity on their sensory perception, and the mechanism ofspace adaptation syndrome. To study this, on the second day of the mission Lucid and Fettman wore headsets, known as accelerometer recording units, which recorded their head movements during the day. Along with Seddon, Wolf and Fettman, Lucid collected blood and urine samples from the crew for metabolic experiments. They also drew blood from the tails of the rats to measure how weightlessness affected theirred blood cell counts.[62] They performed sixteen engineering tests aboardColumbia and twenty Extended Duration Orbiter Medical Project experiments. The mission completed 225 orbits of the Earth, traveling five million miles in 336 hours, 13 minutes and 1 second. Landing was at Edwards Air Force Base, California.[61] On completion of this flight, Lucid had logged 838 hours and 54 minutes in space.[2]
In 1992 the United States and Russia reached an agreement on cooperation in space so that Russiancosmonauts could fly on the Space Shuttles, and American astronauts on the RussianMirspace station.[63] The prospect of a long stay onMir was not one calculated to appeal to most astronauts: they had to learn Russian and train atStar City for a year to spend several months on boardMir carrying out science experiments with Russian cosmonauts.[64] "I was wondering what it would be like to spend a long period of time in space," Lucid later recalled. "I told everybody I wanted to do it, and they couldn't find anybody else who had volunteered. So they said: 'Well OK, go do it.'"[64] In January 1995 Lucid and Blaha joined fellow astronautsBonnie Dunbar andNorman Thagard forMir training in Star City.[65] On March 30, 1995, NASA announced that Lucid would be the second astronaut to stay aboardMir,[66] after Thagard, who arrived on the space station on March 16.[67]
Lucid's mission toMir commenced on March 22, 1996, with liftoff from KSC aboardAtlantis on theSTS-76 mission.Atlantis docked withMir on March 24, and Lucid became the first American woman to live on the station.[68] She joined cosmonautsYuri Onufriyenko andYuri Usachov, neither of whom spoke English.[69] During the course of her stay aboardMir, Lucid performed numerous life science and physical science experiments. She lit candles to study the behavior of fire in a microgravity environment; studied the way that quailembryos developed in their shells; grew protein crystals; and cultivated wheat in a tiny greenhouse.[3][70] She injected herself with an immune system stimulant and collected blood and saliva samples to study the effects of microgravity on the immune system.[71]
In her free time, she read books. One novel she enjoyed immensely wasThe Mirror of Her Dreams, but she reached the end only to find that it ended on acliffhanger. "I floated there, alone in Spectra, in stunned disbelief, holding only volume one," she later recalled. "I was stranded, the impossibility of running to the local bookstore forefront in my mind ... How could my daughter have done this to me? Who would send only one volume of a two-volume set to her mother in space?"[72] She arranged for the second volume to be sent on the nextProgress resupply freighter.[73] She left her books onMir for later astronaut visitors, but they became inaccessible after theProgress M-34 collision in June 1997.[74] Thagard had warned Lucid about the Russians' fondness for jellied fish andborscht. She brought a supply ofM&M's andjello with her, and lived on a combination of Russian and American food.[75]
Lucid's return journey to KSC was made aboardAtlantis. TheSTS-79 mission docked withMir on September 18, bringing Blaha as her relief, and landed back at KSC on September 26, 1996.[76] One of the catches that released her helmet from the neck ring became stuck, and technicians had to use pliers and a screwdriver to remove it.[3][77] During her stay onMir, Lucid had spent nearly 400 hours exercising on astationary bicycle and atreadmill, and was able to stand and walk offAtlantis. Administrator of NASADaniel Goldin presented her with a giftwrapped box of M&M's, a gift from PresidentBill Clinton, since she had told him that she craved them.[3][78]
In completing this mission Lucid traveled 121.0 million kilometers (75.2 million miles) in 188 days, 4 hours, 0 minutes. This included 179 days onMir.[2] Her stay onMir was not expected to last so long but her return was delayed twice, extending her stay by about six weeks.[69] As a result of her time aboardMir, she held the record for the most hours in orbit by a non-Russian, and most hours in orbit by a woman until June 16, 2007, when her record for longest duration spaceflight by a woman was exceeded bySunita Williams on theInternational Space Station.[79][80]
Lucid had a short cameo in the 1998 filmArmageddon.[81] From 2002 to 2003, she served asChief Scientist of NASA. Starting in 2005, she served as lead CAPCOM on the Planning (overnight) shift at theMission Control for sixteenSpace Shuttle missions, includingSTS-135, the final mission.[2] On January 31, 2012, she announced her retirement from NASA.[80][82]
Lucid retired from NASA to take care of her husband Mike, who haddementia. He died on December 25, 2014.[83] She later wrote about this experience in her bookNo Sugar Added: One Family's Saga of Dementia and Caretaking (2019).[84] She wrote about her experiences onMir inTumbleweed: Six Months Living on Mir (2020).[85]
Lucid was awarded theCongressional Space Medal of Honor in December 1996 (for her mission toMir), making her the tenth person and first woman to be given this honor.[86] She was also awarded theNASA Space Flight Medal in 1985, 1989 (twice), 1991, 1993 and 1996; theNASA Exceptional Service Medal in 1988, 1990, 1992 and 2003 (twice); and theNASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1994 and 1997.[87] She was inducted into theInternational Space Hall of Fame in 1990,[88] theOklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in 1993,[89] theNational Women's Hall of Fame in 1998,[90] and theUnited States Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2014.[91][92] In 2002Discover magazine recognized her as one of the fifty most importantwomen in science.[93]
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.| Spacecraft |  | |
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NASA Astronaut Group 8, "TFNG (Thirty-Five New Guys)", 1978  | |||||||
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NASA Astronaut Group 7 ← NASA Astronaut Group 8 →NASA Astronaut Group 9 | |||||||
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