Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper

Infobox Astronaut
name =Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper

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type =Astronaut
nationality =American
date_birth =birth date and age|1963|2|7
date_death =
place_birth =St. Paul, Minnesota
place_death =
occupation =Diver
rank =Captain, USN
selection =1996 NASA Group
time =11d 19h 06m
mission =STS-115
insignia =|

Heidemarie Martha Stefanyshyn-Piper (born February 7, 1963 in St. Paul, Minnesota) is an American Naval officer and a NASA astronaut.

Early life and education

Of Ukrainian-American heritage, Stefanyshyn-Piper graduated in 1980 from what was then the all-girls Derham Hall High School in St. Paul, Minnesota, and holds Bachelor of Science (1984) and Master's (1985) degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT. She is a licensed Amateur radio operator (ham) with Technician License KD5TVR.

Military career

Stefanyshyn-Piper is a Captain in the United States Navy.

NASA career

Stefanyshyn-Piper flew her first mission on STS-115 (launched on September 9, 2006, returned September 21, 2006), as a Mission Specialist and became only the 8th woman to perform a spacewalk (out of 156 total spacewalkers).

Stefanyshyn-Piper's two EVAs for a total of 12 hours, 8 minutes made her the second most experienced female spacewalker. She also became the first Minnesotan woman to go into space. [ [http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/stefanys.html NASA biography] ] [ [http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/astronauts/english/stefanyshyn-piper_heidemarie.htm Spacefacts biography of Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper] ] [ [http://www.qrz.com/detail/KD5TVR QRZ.com Ham License information for Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper] ] [ [http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/09/11/101/ Story: Five Radio Amateurs Now Aboard ISS] ]

On September 22, 2006, Stefanyshyn-Piper collapsed twice during a welcome-home ceremony with family and friends. She had "a couple of small dizzy spells" while speaking during the ceremony at Ellington Field in Houston. A flight surgeon examined Stefanyshyn-Piper, 43, and said she was fine, but still making the readjustment to Earth's gravity from the weightlessness of space.

She is currently assigned as a Mission Specialist on STS-126. During STS-126 she is planned to perform three spacewalks as the lead astronaut.

References