Wendy Barrien Lawrence

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Wendy Lawrence
Wendy Lawrence
Country: United States
Organization: NASA
selected on March 31, 1992
(14th NASA Group)
Calls: 4 space flights
Start of the
first space flight: 		March 2, 1995
Landing of the
last space flight: 		August 9, 2005
Time in space: 51d 3h 56min
EVA inserts: No
retired on June 2006
Space flights

Wendy Barrien Lawrence (born July 2, 1959 in Jacksonville , Florida ) is a former American astronaut .

Life

Lawrence was born about 150 miles north of the Kennedy Space Center . She is the daughter of the well-known US Navy pilot William P. Lawrence , who died in December 2005. He was a test pilot, was shot down over North Vietnam during the Vietnam War in June 1967, and remained in captivity for six years. When the first candidates for the American space program were sought in the late 1950s, the future Vice Admiral was one of the most promising candidates - he was among the last 32 applicants for the Mercury program . A heart defect made him fail. During this time, Wendy was born; she grew up with space travel: the future astronauts John Glenn , Alan Shepard and Jim Lovell were friends of her father. Wendy played with their children along with her brother and older sister Laurie.

Wendy Lawrence grew up in California , Tennessee, and Virginia . In 1977 she graduated from Fort Hunt High School in Alexandria, Virginia. Then she joined the US Navy and began studying marine science at the Naval Academy (USNA) in Maryland . (The class that Wendy attended was the first in USNA history with female cadets. Her father was also the dean at the time.) While studying, she sought a physical challenge to balance her studies. She started to row and run. Running became a race and in 1979 she even took part in the "Marine Corps Marathon" in Annapolis, which has existed since 1976 and takes place annually (her time: 3 hours and 36 minutes). She passed the Bachelor's examination in 1981.

Lawrence got her license to fly in the Navy (with honors) after completing her bachelor's degree and was transferred to the 6th Helicopter Support Squadron in the summer of 1982 . She would much rather have flown jets, but because of her small size (only 1.60 meters), this part of the flight was denied her. She was one of the first two pilots who were stationed in the Indian Ocean for a long time - on an aircraft carrier - as part of this assignment.

Following this assignment, Lawrence continued to study marine engineering. To do this, she enrolled at the well-known Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), which is located on the Cape Cod peninsula ( Massachusetts ), and trains students on the basis of a cooperation agreement with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Founded in Woods Hole in 1930, the institute is one of the world's leading marine research institutions. In 1988 she obtained a master’s degree and then headed a search party in a anti-submarine squadron for two years. Then she went back to her alma mater , the US Naval Academy, as a teacher. Until she joined NASA, she taught physics and sports.

Astronaut activity

Wendy Lawrence was introduced by NASA in March 1992, along with 18 other applicants, as a future mission specialist. She was the first female helicopter pilot, the first female US Navy pilot, and the first USNA graduate ever to be selected as an astronaut. The one-year basic training began in August 1992. Afterwards she worked in the so-called Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) on the software for the main computer of the space shuttle before training for her first shuttle flight from January 1994.

Lawrence was posted for her first mission in January 1994. STS-67 , aka Astro-2, took place with the Endeavor in March 1995 . During the 16 days the crew worked in two shifts. Lawrence led the blue team and was responsible for navigating the shuttle during her shift.

Half a year after her debut as a mission specialist, Lawrence was placed in September 1995 as a replacement astronaut for her colleague John Blaha , who was scheduled for a long-term flight on board the Soviet Mir space station in September 1996. But in mid-October 1995, just before her departure for Star City - she had already learned Russian since June - it was said from Moscow that, with her 160 centimeters, she was too small for the standards of the Soyuz spaceships . The Soyuz spaceships were to be used to return to Earth quickly in the event of an accident at the station. And according to the Russian specifications, it would be four centimeters too small. To justify why a few days after astronaut Scott Parazynski (he was a few centimeters too tall) Lawrence had also been rejected, NASA said the exact measurements were received too late.

In April 1996 she was allowed to travel to Russia. Not to prepare for a mission, but as a new liaison officer. By October 1996 she was the sixth “Director of Operations in Russia (DOR)” overall and the first woman on this rotation post. (The task of the DOR in the Shuttle Mir program was to monitor the astronaut training and as the official representative of NASA to clarify any problems with the Russian side.)

In mid-August 1996, Lawrence got her second chance on a Mir flight (the Russians had since modified the contour seats): the following year she was to fly to the Russian Mir space station on the STS-86 shuttle flight and work on board for four months. In January 1998, David Wolf was supposed to take over from her, but that never happened.

At the end of June 1997 a Progress freighter rammed the Mir station and damaged the station so badly that a module had to be sealed off due to a leak. This accident made extensive external repair work necessary. Since Lawrence did not complete any EVA training and was also too small for the Russian space suits ( Orlan-Skaphander ) used for this mission , it was initially decided at the end of July 1997 not to take them with him on the planned repair flight. However, since a third astronaut was required to actively support the repairs, the astronaut Wolf should take her place. Wolf had prepared as long as Lawrence and also had 150 hours of EVA training in NASA's water basin. The fact that Lawrence flew to Mir as a mission specialist on board STS-86 in autumn 1997 was due to her very good knowledge of the Russian station and her training in Russia.

Just three weeks after her return, Lawrence was nominated as the STS-91 mission specialist for her third space flight. The ten-day flight of the space shuttle Discovery in June 1998 was the ninth and final coupling flight with the Russian Mir space station.

Astronauts Wendy Lawrence and Andrew Thomas in the Raffaello module during the STS-114 mission

At the beginning of November 2003, Lawrence was nominated for the first shuttle flight after the Columbia disaster - the so-called "return-to-flight" mission: with the STS-114 , a space shuttle steered the International Space Station after more than two years of interruption (ISS). The crew of seven brought eight tons of cargo to the ISS, one of Lawrence's main tasks being logistical coordination.

According to NASA

Lawrence, who is single and has no children, left NASA in June 2006 and now works for Andrews Space , a company that designs future space systems. Lawrence is responsible for the safety of the crew in the area of ​​manned spaceflight. She was also involved in the development of the reusable Kistler K-1 rocket .

See also

Web links

Commons : Wendy B. Lawrence  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Lawrence, Wendy Barrien
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronaut
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd July 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Jacksonville (Florida)