Kathryn D. Sullivan

Dr. Kathryn Sullivan joined NASA as part of the barrier-breaking astronaut class of 1978. As one of the first six women chosen for the “Thirty-Five New Guys,” Sullivan became the first American woman to perform a spacewalk high above Earth. She continued to break boundaries after NASA as the first woman to dive to lowest point on Earth, to Challenger Deep inside the Mariana Trench.

Quick Facts

Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, a veteran of three space shuttle flights, made history on STS-41G as the first American woman to walk in space.

The primary goal of the STS-31 mission was the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope. The crew captured the historic moments of the flight with IMAX in-cabin and cargo bay cameras.

Dr. Sullivan served as payload commander for STS-45, the first Spacelab mission dedicated to NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth.

Sally Ride and Kathryn Sullivan on Mission STS-41G — Astronauts Kathryn D. Sullivan, left, and Sally K. Ride display a “bag of worms” during the STS-41G mission in 1984. The bag is a sleep restraint and the majority of the ‘worms’ are mostly springs and clips used with the sleep restraint. Clamps, a bungee cord and Velcro strips are other recognizable items in the bag. STS-41G was the first flight to include two women. (Oct. 1984)
NASA

Contrasting the old with the new, six astronaut candidates pose in their new constant wear garments, ideal for the zero-gravity tasks in the pressurized environs of Space Shuttle. The “old” is an Apollo type spacesuit used for extravehicular activity (EVA). From left to right are Shannon W. Lucid, Rhea Seddon, Kathryn D. Sullivan, Judith A. Resnik, Anna L. Fisher and Sally K. Ride. (28 Feb 1979)
NASA

On Discovery’s middeck, the STS-31 crew poses for a traditional in-flight portrait. Astronaut Loren J. Shriver, mission commander, is at lower left. Astronaut Charles F. Bolden, pilot, floats above. Others, left to right, are Kathryn D. Sullivan, Bruce McCandless II and Steven A. Hawley, all mission specialists. (April 1990)
NASA

Astronaut Kathryn Sullivan in spacesuit in open payload bay of shuttle Challenger — Astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan checks the latch of the SIR-B antenna in the space shuttle Challenger’s open cargo bay during her historic extravehicular activity (EVA) on Oct. 11, 1984. Earlier, America’s first woman to perform an EVA and astronaut David C. Leestma, participated in an in-space simulation of refueling a spacecraft in orbit.
NASA

Biography

Kathryn D. Sullivan

Dr. Kathryn Sullivan is a licensed pilot and enjoys an active and athletic lifestyle. Graduating with a BS in Earth sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz, she went on to earn her doctorate in geology from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. During a holiday gathering in 1978, Sullivan’s brother pestered her to apply for the new 1978 astronaut class because for the first time, NASA was accepting women and minority candidates.

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Astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan, 41-G mission specialist sitting with her STS-41G crewmembers

Astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan, 41-G mission specialist, joins with other members of the seven-person crew prior to a training session in the Shuttle mockup and integration laboratory at the Johnson Space Center. (2 September 1984)

NASA

Missions Flown by Kathryn D. Sullivan

STS-41G

The STS-41G mission crew included two of the first six female American astronauts – Sally Ride and Kathryn Sullivan. The flight was the second mission for Ride and the first for Sullivan, where she also became the first American woman to walk in space.

STS-31

The primary goal of the STS-31 mission was the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope. After overcoming an initial problem with the solar array deployment, the crew filmed the historic deployment with two IMAX cameras, and the results appeared in the 1994 IMAX film, Destiny in Space.

STS-45

STS-45 carried aboard the first Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science on Spacelab pallets mounted in Atlantis' cargo bay. The payload was equipped with 12 instruments for studies in atmospheric chemistry, solar radiation, space plasma physics, and ultraviolet astronomy