Susan Leigh Still-Kilrain

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Susan Still-Kilrain
Susan Still-Kilrain
Country: United States
Organization: NASA
selected on December 9, 1994
( 15th NASA Group )
Calls: 2 space flights
Start of the
first space flight: 		April 4, 1997
Landing of the
last space flight: 		July 17, 1997
Time in space: 19d 15h 58min
retired on December 2002
Space flights

Susan Leigh Still-Kilrain (born Susan Leigh Still on October 24, 1961 in Augusta , Georgia , USA ) is a former American astronaut .

education

Still-Kilrain attended Walnut Hill High School in Natick , Massachusetts , until 1979 . In 1982 she graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida with a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering . She then attended the Georgia Institute of Technology , from which she received a Masters in Aerospace Engineering in 1985 . During her studies, she worked on wind tunnels at Lockheed in Marietta, Georgia .

Military career

Susan Still joined the United States Navy in 1985 and became a naval pilot in 1987. She was an instructor on the TA-4J Skyhawk and later flew Grumman EA-6A Electric Intruder for Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 33 in Key West , Florida . She later became a test pilot and trained on the Grumman F-14 .

Astronaut activity

Still-Kilrain was selected into the 15th NASA group in December 1994 and trained as a shuttle pilot from March 1995 . As early as May 1996, she was nominated as a pilot for the STS-83 mission .

Still-Kilrain took off on April 4, 1997 on the Columbia space shuttle for its first space flight. There were only two years and four months between being selected for the astronaut group and the first flight. No NASA astronaut before and after had achieved this in a shorter time, and she was only the second woman as a shuttle pilot after Eileen Collins .

On this mission, Susan Still-Kilrain took Kara Hultgreen's pilot needle into space, who also wanted to become an astronaut and who had a fatal accident with her F-14 Tomcat in October 1994 while approaching the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln .

During the flight, which was originally designed for 15 days, problems occurred in one of the space shuttle's fuel cells , so the mission was aborted and the Columbia landed after just under four days.

NASA decided to restart the flight with the same crew and with the same mission profile. Still-Kilrain made its second flight with STS-94 on July 1st, 1997 . Still-Kilrain and her teammates hold the record for the shortest time between two space flights.

Still-Kilrain later worked in the Legal Department at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC She left NASA in December 2002 and the US Navy in June 2005.

Private

Susan Still-Kilrain is married to Colin James Kilrain and has one son.

Web links

Commons : Susan Still-Kilrain  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sally Spears: Call Sign Revlon. The Life and Death of Navy Fighter Pilot Kara Hultgreen. ISBN 1-55750-809-7
personal data
SURNAME Still-Kilrain, Susan Leigh
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Still, Susan Leigh (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronaut
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Augusta (Georgia)