Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper

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Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper
Astronaut
Nationality	American
Born	February 7, 1963 (1963-02-07) (age 45) St. Paul, Minnesota
Other occupation	Diver
Rank	Captain, USN
Space time	11d 19h 06m
Selection	1996 NASA Group
Missions	STS-115, STS-126
Mission insignia

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

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Military career 3 NASA career 4 References

[edit] 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.

[edit] Military career

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

[edit] 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.^[1][2][3][4]

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.

[edit] References