Kathryn "Kay" Hire is a Captain in the United States Navy
Reserve and a NASA astronaut. Currently, she is the only woman passenger aboard
Space Shuttle Endeavour on its mission to the International Space Station
(ISS).
Background
Kay Hire was born August 26, 1959 in Mobile, Alabama.
She was raised in Mobile and graduated from Murphy High
School in 1977. She then went on to get her Bachelor
of Science (B.S.) degree in Engineering and Management from the United States Naval Academy
in 1981.
Hire earned her Naval Flight Officer wings in 1982 and
became part of an oceanographic research squadron that flew all over the world,
conducting experiments and collecting data. As part of that squadron, she acted
as Oceanographic Project Coordinator and Mission Commander and Detachment
Officer-in-Charge. During that time, she also worked as a flight instructor at
the Naval Air Training Unit.
In 1989, Kay Hire left full-time duty and joined the Navy
Reserve in Jacksonville, Florida,
where she served with Patrol Squadron Augment Unit VP-0545 and Anti-Submarine Warfare Operations
Center 0574 and 0374.
While in Jacksonville, she continued her education
at the Florida
Institute of Technology (FIT), receiving a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Space
Technology in 1991.
Combat Aircrew to
Astronaut Training
During her time in Jacksonville,
Kay Hire began working at Kennedy
Space Center
as an Orbiter Processing Activation Engineer and then a Space Shuttle Orbiter
Mechanical Systems Engineer. In 1991, she became a certified Space Shuttle Test
Project Engineer (TPE) and headed the checkout of spacesuits and the Russian
Orbiter Docking System.
After the repeal of Title 10 USC combat restriction of female military aviators
in 1993, Kay Hire became the first female in the United States military to be
assigned to a combat aircrew. She first reported to Patrol Squadron Sixty-Two
as a navigator/communicator and flew the P-3C Update III Orion mariti me patrol
aircraft.
In December 1994, Kay Hire was selected for astronaut training. She
reported to Johnson
Space Center
in March 1995. After training for over a year, she began working in mission
control as a spacecraft communicator. Later, she flew as a Mission Specialist-2
on STS-90. The 16-day mission involved performing life science experiments that
focused on the effects of microgravity on the brain and nervous system. At the
end of the mission, STS-90 had orbited the Earth 256 times and covered 6.3
million miles – with astronauts logging over 381 hours in space.
Additionally, Kay Hire has served as the Astronaut Office
Lead for Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory, Shuttle Payloads, and Flight
Crew Equipment. She was also assigned to the Astronaut Support Personnel Team
for Kennedy Space Center
operations.
Aboard the Endeavour
Kay Hire is currently the Mission Specialist aboard NASA's
Endeavour (STS-130) as part of its mission to the International Space Station.
The primary payloads on that mission are the Tranquility module and the Cupola,
a robotic control station that provides 360° view around the station. Hire
is leading robotics on the mission and acting as loadmaster.
Click
here to check out exclusive photos of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on CR4's
Facebook group.
Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_P._Hire
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/hire.html
http://www.merinews.com/article/kay-hire-lady-crew-of-the-current-space-shuttle-endeavour/15797422.shtml
http://www.kids.gov/internal/astronaut.shtml
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