Catherine Coleman
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Catherine Coleman (born December 14, 1960, in Charleston, South Carolina) is a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force and an astronaut.
She received a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983, and then joined the Air force as a second lieutenant while continuing her graduate work at the University of Massachusetts. 1988 she entered active duty at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as a research chemist. During her work she also participated at the analysis of the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) experiment launched with STS-41-C and retrieved with STS-32. In 1991 she received her doctorate in polymer science and engineering from the University of Massachusetts. She was selected by NASA in 1992 to become a mission specialist astronaut.
She has taken part in two space shuttle missions so far. In 1995 she was a member of the STS-73 crew on the scientific mission USML-1 with experiments including biotechnology, combustion science and the physics of fluids.
She also trained for the mission STS-83 to be the backup for Donald Thomas, however as he recovered on time she did not fly that mission.
STS-93 was Coleman's second space flight. On that mission the Chandra X-ray Observatory was sent to orbit.
External link
- NASA biography (http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/coleman.html)