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Celebrating NASA’s Astronaut-Physicians

Mae Jemison
Today is National Doctors' Day!

Today is National Doctors’ Day!

Celebrated each year on March 30, National Doctors’ Day recognizes the contributions of physicians to individual lives and communities. At NASA, a number of our astronauts also have been physicians. NASA also has flight surgeons, who specialize in caring for our astronauts.

Mae Jemison, the first African American woman in space, was also a physician and flew on Space Shuttle Endeavour’s STS-47 mission in 1998. In this image from Jan. 1992, Jemison works at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

More recently, Serena Auñón-Chancellor​, another astronaut and physician, spent six months aboard the International Space Station. She is also a distinguished and award-winning flight surgeon.

Learn more about flight surgeons and their role in keeping our astronauts flight ready.

Image Credit: NASA