|
"Basically, all my life I'd been told you can't do that because you're female. So I guess I just didn't pay attention."
—Shannon Lucid
Biochemist Shannon Lucid set the American record for the most time spent in space, orbiting Earth for 188 consecutive days. One of the first women astronauts, Lucid has studied the effects of space travel on human health. In orbit Lucid often used her own body in biochemical experiments about living in zero gravity. Her discoveries laid the groundwork for long-term human explorations of our solar system.
|
 |
Lucid spent six months on the Russian space station Mir (left) during 1996. Both photos courtesy NASA.
Both photos courtesy NASA.
|
|
About Her Life
Shannon Wells Lucid (born 1943) had an unusual early childhood. She was the daughter of J. Oscar and Myrtle Wells, Baptist missionaries from the United States who were living and working in Shanghai, China, when she was born. This was during the height of World War II, and China had been at war with Japan for many years. The Japanese army had occupied Shanghai since 1937, and when Shannon was six weeks old, she and her family were imprisoned by the Japanese military. After a year they were freed in a prisoner exchange and returned to the United States. After the war ended in 1945, her family came back to China but was forced out when the Communist party came to power in 1949. The family then settled down to a relatively normal life in Oklahoma.
Growing up in the early days of the space race, Lucid decided as a child that she wanted to be an astronaut. She was angered when the first group of U.S. astronauts selected was all men. Undaunted, she studied science and learned to fly airplanes. In 1963 she earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Oklahoma. She looked for work as a pilot, but discrimination kept her from getting a job in that field. Work in chemistry was hard to find too. She recalls seeking advice from a professor a few weeks before her graduation; he told her, “Shannon, you’re not going to get a job. You’re a female.” (AWIS Magazine, Spring 2002) The only job she could get at first was at a nursing home, caring for the elderly patients. Eventually she found work in a laboratory, where she met her future husband, Michael Lucid, whom she married in 1968. Shortly afterward, she returned to the University of Oklahoma to earn her Ph.D. in biochemistry. While in school, she gave birth to two daughters and several years later a son.
The opportunity Lucid had been waiting for came in the 1970s when the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) announced they were seeking applications from women who were interested in becoming astronauts. She applied immediately and was chosen as one of the first six women (including Sally Ride) to train as astronauts in the U.S. space program. Her first space flight finally came in 1985 aboard space-shuttle mission STS-51G. She flew several more shuttle missions, but she became a household name in 1996 when she spent 188 days in space aboard the Russian Mir space station, the longest space flight ever made by a U.S. astronaut.
Astronauts do many different kinds of research during space missions, because there cannot be experts in every possible field onboard space vehicles. So, even though Lucid trained as a biochemist, her experiments in space covered a wide range of topics. On her second space flight, Lucid studied polymers, those giants molecules that are found in our bodies (e.g., proteins), plants (e.g., starch, cellulose), and in our homes (e.g., various fibers and plastics). On this same mission the shuttle crew launched the spacecraft Galileo on its trip to the planet Jupiter.
Lucid no longer flies in space, but she still works with NASA. In 2002 and 2003 she served as NASA’s chief scientist at their headquarters in Washington, D.C., and since then she has been based at NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston. In 2006 she made a trip to her birth country, China, with a NASA administrator at the request of the China National Space Administration.
For Further Reading on the Web
Reaching for the Stars – Interviews with Women Astronauts: Shannon Lucid — an interview with Lucid from the Spring 2002 issue of AWIS Magazine, a publication of the Association for Women in Science.
Shannon Lucid — profile from NASA, featuring audio and video clips of Lucid answering audience questions as part of the Women of NASA Project.
Astronaut Bio: Shannon Lucid — her official NASA biographical data; contains details of her space flights.
Astronaut Shannon Lucid’s China Homecoming — from NASA, about her 2006 trip to China.
There's No Place Like Home — transcript of expert panel discussion of Lucid's record-breaking space flight from PBS's NewsHour, 26 September 1996. |
