Nancy Currie is an engineer who served in the U.S. Army for 23
years and became an astronaut in 1990.
She is a veteran of four space shuttle missions, having logged 1,000
hours in space while flying as a mission specialist.
Currie began working with NASA's Johnson Space Center in
September 1987. She was a flight
simulation engineer, spacecraft communicator, chief of the Astronaut Office
Robotics and Payloads-Habitability branches, and assisted in the development of
advanced robotic systems.
Her first spaceflight launched on June 21, 1993. She and a crew on the space shuttle Endeavor retrieved
EURECA, an unmanned satellite, and stored it in the shuttle's payload bay. Currie (then known as Nancy Sherlock) served
as a mission specialist responsible for positioning Endeavor's robotic arm so
fellow specialist David Low could snag the satellite. The function of the arm is to support the astronauts
who are workout outside the shuttle - extra-vehicular activity (EVA), or
spacewalking.
Currie served on the first-ever mission to the International
Space Station (ISS) in 1998. The purpose
of the mission was to deliver the first American module, the Unity node, to the
ISS. Currie once again controlled the
robotic arm. This time her task was to
place the node on the orbital docking system of the ISS. She was part of the first crew to enter the
ISS.
Currie controlled the shuttle's robotic arm again during a Columbia
mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope in 2002. A new camera was installed and existing
instruments were adjusted. This was
Columbia's last mission - its next and final mission ended with a tragic
accident during re-entry.
Currie is retired but serves as the Chief Engineer for the
NASA Engineering and Safety Center at the Johnson Space Center.
Not related to Marie Curie. 
Resources:
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/currie.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_J._Currie
http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/astronauts/english/currie_nancy.htm
http://articles.cnn.com/2002-03-06/tech/columbia.currie.intvu_1_hubble-mission-nancy-currie-john-grunsfeld?_s=PM:TECH
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/jscfeatures/articles/000000024.html
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Re: Woman of the Week – Nancy Currie (1958-)
