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  Astronaut Shannon Lucid's post-NASA career

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Author Topic:   Astronaut Shannon Lucid's post-NASA career
Robert Pearlman
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Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 01-31-2012 02:04 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
NASA release
Astronaut Shannon Lucid Retires From NASA

Shannon Lucid, a member of NASA's first astronaut class to include women, has retired after more than three decades of service to the agency.

A veteran of five spaceflights, Lucid logged more than 223 days in space, and from August 1991 to June 2007, held the record for the most days in orbit by any woman in the world.

Lucid is the only American woman to serve aboard the Russian Mir space station. She lived and worked there for more than 188 days, the longest stay of any American on that vehicle. Her time on Mir also set the single flight endurance record by a woman until Sunita Williams broke it in 2006.

"Shannon is an extraordinary woman and scientist. She paved the way for so many of us," Peggy Whitson, chief of NASA's Astronaut Office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said. "She was a model astronaut for long-duration missions, and whether she was flying hundreds of miles up in space or serving as Capcom [capsule communicator] during the overnight hours for our space shuttle and space station crews, she always brought a smile to our faces. Like so many others, I always will look up to her."

Lucid, who holds a doctorate in biochemistry, was selected by NASA in 1978. She joined five other women as the agency's first female astronauts. Her first three shuttle missions deployed satellites. STS-51G in 1985 deployed and retrieved the SPARTAN satellite; STS-34 in 1989 deployed the Galileo spacecraft to explore Jupiter; and STS-43 in 1991 deployed the fifth Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-E). Her fourth shuttle mission, STS-58 in 1993, focused on medical experiments and engineering tests.

Lucid traveled on board Atlantis on STS-76 in March 1996 to the Russian Mir space station. She performed numerous life science and physical science experiments during the course of her stay. She returned from the station aboard Atlantis on STS-79 in September 1996.

In 2002, Shannon Lucid served as NASA's chief scientist at the agency's headquarters in Washington. She returned to Johnson in the fall of 2003 and resumed technical assignments in the Astronaut Office. She served as a Capcom in the Mission Control Center for numerous space shuttle and space station crews, representing the flight crew office and providing a friendly voice for dozens of friends and colleagues in space.

ea757grrl
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Posts: 729
From: South Carolina
Registered: Jul 2006

posted 01-31-2012 04:29 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ea757grrl   Click Here to Email ea757grrl     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Best wishes for a wonderful retirement to a super-cool lady - and excellent role model.

GoesTo11
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Posts: 1309
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 2004

posted 01-31-2012 08:25 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for GoesTo11   Click Here to Email GoesTo11     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Seconded. Sally Ride will always be the answer to the trivia question, but Shannon's service and contributions to the space program measure up with most any astronaut's, regardless of gender.

brianjbradley
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Posts: 114
From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Dec 2010

posted 01-31-2012 09:10 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for brianjbradley   Click Here to Email brianjbradley     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
A shuttle program legend. As outstanding members of the Astronaut Office, I guess you can say she and Anna Fisher are the only two American astronauts who truly saw the shuttle program from the beginning through to the end. What an achievement.

Cozmosis22
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Posts: 968
From: Texas * Earth
Registered: Apr 2011

posted 01-31-2012 09:52 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Cozmosis22     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Best of luck to her!

Jay Chladek
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Posts: 2272
From: Bellevue, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2007

posted 02-01-2012 05:05 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jay Chladek   Click Here to Email Jay Chladek     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
It is going to be weird turning on NASA TV and not seeing her do the wakeup calls to the crews anymore. In terms of what she did, she indeed did it all and gave us so much over the years.

mjanovec
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Posts: 3811
From: Midwest, USA
Registered: Jul 2005

posted 02-01-2012 01:27 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for mjanovec   Click Here to Email mjanovec     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Like Jerry Ross, who also just retired, Lucid was a true career astronaut... in it for the long haul. Her many years of service at NASA (not to mention her many spaceflights) add up to an amazing career.

music_space
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Posts: 1179
From: Canada
Registered: Jul 2001

posted 02-02-2012 09:33 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for music_space   Click Here to Email music_space     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Great lady! Can't wait to see her participate to public events such as the ASF's.

OV-105
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Posts: 816
From: Ridgecrest, CA
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 02-02-2012 06:45 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for OV-105   Click Here to Email OV-105     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
So any bets that Lucid and Ross will be in the Astronaut Hall of Fame as soon as they can be voted in?

dogcrew5369
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Posts: 750
From: Statesville, NC
Registered: Mar 2009

posted 02-03-2012 04:47 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for dogcrew5369   Click Here to Email dogcrew5369     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
A legend in her own time. Best wishes.

astro-nut
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Posts: 946
From: Washington, IL
Registered: Jan 2006

posted 02-12-2012 02:48 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for astro-nut   Click Here to Email astro-nut     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Best wishes to Shannon and thank you for your dedicated service to NASA!!

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