LUCID TO TAKE HER PLACE IN HISTORY BOOKS DURING MIR MISSION



March 18, 1996



Eileen Hawley
Kari Fluegel
Johnson Space Center
(713) 483-5111

<h4>Release: 96-009</h4> <h3>Lucid to Take Her Place in History Books 
During Mir Mission</h3> 

NASA Astronaut Shannon Lucid is stepping into the history books 
alongside pioneers such as Amelia Earhart, Bessie Coleman, Valentina 
Tereshkova and Sally Ride as she prepares to become the first 
American woman to spend an extended time in space.



Lucid is scheduled to begin her five-month mission aboard Russia's Mir 
Space Station, launching from the Kennedy Space Center on board the 
Space Shuttle Atlantis. The launch currently is set for March 21 with 
Atlantis docking to Mir about 43 hours into the flight, fulfilling a 
lifelong dream for Lucid.



"When I was a little girl I was very interested in being a pioneer 
like in the American west, and I really liked those stories, but I 
thought "well, I was born in the wrong time," Lucid said. "I thought 
I can just be an explorer, but then I thought &lsquo;when I grow up 
all the Earth is going to be explored." In the fourth and fifth 
grade, Lucid discovered stories about Robert Goddard, the father of 
rocketry, and became fascinated with his work. 3I started reading 
about science fiction and I thought, "that1s what I can do when I 
grow up--I can grow up and explore space.12 Lucid's mission is a 
significant milestone in women's history, building on a foundation 
first started by Russian Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova 33 years ago.



Tereshkova, a textile factory worker and amateur parachutist, became 
the first woman in space on June 16, 1963, on Vostok 6. During her 
three-day flight, Tereshkova spent more time in space than all the 
Mercury astronauts combined. It was 19 years later that the next 
woman, also Russian, flew in space.



The American space program first opened the ranks of its astronaut 
corps to women in 1978 when Anna Fisher, Shannon Lucid, Judy Resnik, 
Sally Ride, Rhea Seddon and Kathy Sullivan were selected for 
training. Since then 28 women have been completed astronaut candidate 
training, including five women in the Class of 1995.



Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983 on the seventh 
mission of the space shuttle program. During the mission, the crew 
deployed two communications satellites and conducted experiments on 
human adaptation to the space environment. The mission was also the 
first to deploy and retrieve the German-designed Shuttle Pallet 
Satellite.



On October 11, 1984, Sullivan became the first American woman to 
venture outside a space shuttle. During STS 41-G, Sullivan and crew 
mate Dave Leestma spent 3 hours and 29 minutes outside the Space 
Shuttle Challenger conducting a spacewalk that tested fluid transfer 
hardware for possible space station applications.



Women's history recorded another important first when Eileen Collins 
became the first woman to serve as a pilot of the space shuttle in 
1995. The mission, STS-63, was the first time a space shuttle 
rendezvoused with the Russian Space Station Mir.



NASA's women astronauts represent all educational and ethnic 
backgrounds. The current female astronauts are engineers, pilots, 
medical doctors, physicists and chemists. Mae Jemison became the 
first African-American woman in space in 1992, and Ellen Ochoa was 
the first Hispanic woman in space in 1994. Women are an integral part 
of space exploration today with Roberta Bondar of Canada and Chiaki 
Mukai of Japan flying on the space shuttle as payload specialists.



Currently, there are 23 women astronauts. The five who have just 
completed astronaut candidate training includes two pilot-astronauts, 
and three mission specialist-astronauts. They shortly will take their 
place among the ranks of the pioneers exploring the frontier of 
space.



More information about women at NASA can be obtained though the 
Internet at http://jsc.nasa.gov/pao/pao/womens_history.

	
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