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Female astronauts to set
record in space:
Space is about to have an explosion in female population, with four
women set to be in orbit at the same time. This week NASA will
attempt to launch three women to the International Space Station, where
they will join another woman already
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Malegaon:
At Nehru Auditorium of Nehru Centre, Dr. Annie Besant Road, Mumbai
coming Friday July 9, 2010 at 11 in the morning, nearly one thousand
students chosen from 103 schools of Mumbai on
first-come-first-served basis will have a chance to meet and
interact with the former NASA lady astronaut Joan Higginbotham.
According to Piyush Pandey, Director, Nehru Planetarium Mumbai,
Joan, the Space Shuttle (STS-116) crewmate of Sunita Williams will
make a presentation before the children about the challenges and
thrills of space travel, human endurance, etc. and then answer their
questions.
Recipient of several medals and awards and a great motivator for
children, Joan has had a long NASA experience that began in 1987 at
the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, as a Payload Electrical Engineer
in the Electrical and Telecommunications Systems Division.
She has held several positions in NASA such as the lead for the
Orbiter Experiments of the Space Shuttle Columbia, payload
reconfiguration person for all Shuttle missions, done electrical
compatibility tests for all payloads flown aboard the Shuttle.
She has also served as the Executive
Staff Assistant to the Director of Shuttle Operations and
Management, led a team of engineers in performing critical analysis
for the Space Shuttle flow in support of a simulation model tool,
and worked on an interactive display detailing the Space Shuttle
processing procedures at Spaceport USA (Kennedy Space Center’s
Visitors Center).
She was promoted to lead orbiter
project engineer for Space Shuttle Columbia and led government
engineering position in the firing room where she supported and
managed the integration of vehicle testing and troubleshooting. She
actively participated in 53 space shuttle launches during her 9-year
tenure at Kennedy Space Center.
Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in April 1996, Joan
Higginbotham reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996.
Since that time, she had been assigned technical duties in the
Payloads & Habitability Branch, the Shuttle Avionics & Integration
Laboratory (SAIL), the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Operations (Ops)
Support Branch, where she tested various modules of the
International Space Station for operability, compatibility, and
functionality prior to launch, the Astronaut Office CAPCOM (Capsule
Communicator) Branch in the startup and support of numerous space
station missions and space shuttle missions, the Robotics Branch,
and Lead for the International Space Station Systems Crew Interfaces
Section.
Joan has logged over 308 hours in space having completed her first
mission with the crew of STS-116 Discovery (9-22 December 2006)
where her primary task was to operate the Space Station Remote
Manipulator System.
Joan Higginbotham was assigned to another Space Shuttle flight
(STS-126 mission) targeted for launch in September, 2008 but she
decided to retire from NASA in November 2007 in order to pursue a
career in the private sector.
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