Catherine Coleman

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Catherine Coleman
Catherine Coleman
Country: United States
Organization: NASA
selected on March 31, 1992
(14th NASA Group)
Calls: 3 space flights
Start of the
first space flight: 		October 20, 1995
Landing of the
last space flight: 		May 24, 2011
Time in space: 180d 04h 01min
retired on December 1, 2016
Space flights

Catherine Grace "Cady" Coleman (born December 14, 1960 in Charleston , South Carolina , USA ) is a former American astronaut .

education

Coleman graduated in 1978 Woodson High School in Fairfax ( Virginia ) and then studied chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . She received her bachelor's degree in 1983.

As a qualified chemist, Coleman joined the US Air Force . She was released from military service and began her semester thesis in plastics engineering at the University of Massachusetts . The surface changes of polymers and the reaction behavior of alkenes soon became her specialty. In 1988, she began active service in the Air Force as a research chemist at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base , Ohio . There she investigated whether organic polymers can be used in optical applications for next-generation computers. She was also one of the first scientists to examine the LDEF (Long Duration Exposure Facility) research platform after returning from her six-year space stay in January 1990. In parallel, she was working on her PhD in polymer science, which she obtained in 1991 from the University of Massachusetts.

Astronaut activity

Coleman was introduced by NASA in March 1992 with the 14th astronaut group. Since completing her training in the summer of 1993, she worked in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory of the Johnson Space Center (JSC) , where she tested the space shuttle's computer programs.

In March 1994 she was set up as a scientific mission specialist for her first space flight. STS-73 took place in the fall of 1995 and was a Spacelab mission. The seven astronauts aboard the Columbia undertook investigations in materials science , fluid physics, and combustion science over a period of two weeks .

Coleman then worked in the JSC in the payload department as a contact person for future experimenters. In 1996 she was in charge of the International Space Station (ISS) in matters of acoustics and the translation of Russian lettering.

In the spring of 1997, Coleman was unexpectedly appointed as a replacement astronaut in the crew of STS-83 . Mission specialist Donald Thomas broke his ankle during training . In order not to have to postpone the flight because of this, Coleman had been set up. Thomas recovered quickly and was able to attend the mission as planned in early April.

Coleman then prepared for her second flight in July 1999. The main payload of STS-93 was the Chandra X-ray telescope . On the first day of the flight, Coleman deployed the device, which weighs around five tons.

Two years after Coleman searched for meteorites at the South Pole for four months on behalf of NASA in 2002 , she spent a week and a half in the underwater laboratory "Aquarius" in October 2004 with two other astronauts and other volunteers. This excursion took place as part of the NEEMO program. The US space agency has been carrying out these "NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations" for years. To this end , it signed a cooperation agreement with the American weather service NOAA , which owns the laboratory off the coast of Florida . The “Aquarius” is an 80-tonne steel structure that has been anchored to the sea floor at a depth of 18 meters six kilometers off the coast of Key Largo since 1987 . The spatial conditions correspond roughly to those of the Zvezda module of the ISS. NEEMO offers good preparation for space flight because the conditions are similar: you have to live with several people for a certain period of time in a confined space, you have to get by with resources and problems have to be solved without outside help.

On August 27, 2007, USAF Colonel Catherine Coleman became Nicole Stott's substitute for ISS Expeditions 20 and 21 . The start went smoothly, Coleman was not used. It was also a reserve for ISS expeditions 24 and 25 .

Coleman was a flight engineer on ISS expeditions 26 and 27 and worked on board the ISS from December 2010 to May 2011.

Coleman left NASA on December 1, 2016.

Private

Coleman has been married to the American artist Josh Simpson since 1997 . For more than three decades he has been producing contemporary glass art, which is exhibited in many international galleries and museums. He works from his studio in Massachusetts and is best known in the USA for his paperweights, which he calls "planets". The couple has a son.

Coleman plays the flute and because of her roots she likes to play traditional Irish music. She can occasionally be found in Irish sessions in the Houston area. During her space missions she took some flutes with her and played some pieces in front of the camera. One of them can be heard on the latest album by the Irish group Chieftains.

Like many astronauts, Cady Coleman is a radio amateur with the amateur radio callsign KC5ZTH.

See also

Web links

Commons : Catherine Coleman  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Expedition 24 Prelaunch Preparations. NASA, June 7, 2010, accessed June 15, 2010 .
  2. ↑ NASA Assigns Space Station Crews, Updates Expedition Numbering. NASA, November 21, 2008, accessed October 14, 2009 .
  3. ↑ NASA: Astronaut Cady Coleman Leaves NASA. In: NASA Press Release M16-025. December 8, 2016, accessed December 10, 2016 .
  4. ↑ KC5ZTH in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) database
personal data
SURNAME Coleman, Catherine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Coleman, Catherine Grace; Coleman, Cady (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronaut
DATE OF BIRTH December 14, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Charleston , South Carolina , USA