Megan McArthur

Katherine Megan McArthur (born August 30, 1971) is an American oceanographer, engineer, and former NASA astronaut. She has served as a Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) for both the Space Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS). Megan McArthur has flown one Space Shuttle mission, STS-125, and one SpaceX mission, SpaceX Crew-2 on Crew Dragon Endeavour. She is known as the last person to be hands on with the Hubble Space Telescope via the Canadarm. McArthur has served in a number of positions including working in the Shuttle Avionics Laboratory (SAIL). She is married to fellow astronaut Bob Behnken.

Early life and education McArthur was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, but grew up in California. She attended London Central High School and graduated from St. Francis High School in Mountain View, California, then later earned a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1993. In 2002, she was awarded a Ph.D. in oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

STS-125 McArthur, STS-125 mission specialist, works the controls of the remote manipulator system (RMS) on the aft flight deck of the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Atlantis during flight day eight activities. In 2009, Megan McArthur was a member of the STS-125 mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. McArthur was the ascent and entry flight engineer and was the lead robotics crew member for the mission. The mission which lasted almost 13 days

In 2019, McArthur was appointed Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office.

Expedition 65/66 McArthur reading Chapter 5, Flute, the Canary, of the children's book Elmer and the Dragon (1950) by Ruth Stiles Gannett on board the International Space Station, 265 miles above the northern Atlantic Ocean in August 2021. In July 2020, NASA announced that McArthur would fly into space for the second time on SpaceX Crew-2, along with NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet. She used the same seat inside the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour which her husband, Bob Behnken used in SpaceX Demo-2, the first mission of the Endeavour capsule.

Crew-2 launched and docked with the ISS in April 2021, beginning their 6 month mission. It splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico in November 2021.

Awards and honors

In 2022, SpaceX's Dragon former support vessel GO Searcher was renamed Megan along with GO Navigator as Shannon after SpaceX Crew-1 astronaut, Shannon Walker. A SpaceX fairing recovery/droneship support vessel was named after her husband as Bob in 2021. In 2021, McArthur was selected as a Bloomberg New Economy Catalyst.

Personal life

McArthur is married to fellow astronaut Bob Behnken, and they have one son.

She appeared as an animated version of herself in seasons 4 and 7 of Blaze and the Monster Machines.