Wendy B. Lawrence

Wendy Barrien Lawrence (born July 2, 1959) is a retired United States Navy Captain, an engineer, and former helicopter pilot and NASA astronaut. She was the first female graduate of the United States Naval Academy to fly into space and she has also visited the Russian Space Station Mir. She was a mission specialist on STS-114, the first Space Shuttle flight after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. She is married to Cathy Watson, a former NASA scientist.

Early life Lawrence was born in Jacksonville, Florida. She is the daughter and the granddaughter of naval aviators; her grandfather was noted student-athlete Fatty Lawrence and her father was the late Vice Admiral William P. Lawrence, a Project Mercury astronaut finalist and a former Vietnam prisoner of war who was Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy and the namesake of the destroyer .

Education Lawrence graduated from Fort Hunt High School in Alexandria, Virginia in 1977. She went on to attend the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1981 with a Bachelor of Science in ocean engineering.

Organizations Lawrence Heights Middle School Phi Kappa Phi Association of Naval Aviation Women Military Aviators Naval Helicopter Association The Mars Generation

Military career

Lawrence graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1981. A distinguished flight school graduate, she was designated as a Naval Aviator in July 1982. Lawrence has more than 1,500 hours of flight time in six different types of helicopters and has made more than 800 shipboard landings. Captain Lawrence retired from NASA in June 2006.

Spaceflight experience

STS-67 Endeavour (March 2–18, 1995) was the second flight of the ASTRO observatory, a unique complement of three telescopes. During this 16-day mission, the crew conducted observations around the clock to study the far ultraviolet spectra of faint astronomical objects and the polarization of ultraviolet light coming from hot stars and distant galaxies. Mission duration was 399 hours and 9 minutes.

STS-86 Atlantis (September 25 to October 6, 1997) was the seventh mission to rendezvous and dock with the Russian Space Station Mir. Highlights included the exchange of U.S. crew members Mike Foale and David Wolf, a spacewalk by Scott Parazynski and Vladimir Titov to retrieve four experiments first deployed on Mir during the STS-76 docking mission, the transfer to Mir of 10,400 pounds of science and logistics, and the return of experiment hardware and results to Earth. Mission duration was 169 orbits in 259 hours and 21 minutes.

STS-91 Discovery (June 2–12, 1998) was the 9th and final Shuttle-Mir docking mission and marked the conclusion of the joint U.S./Russian Phase I Program. Mission duration was 235 hours, 54 minutes.

STS-114 Discovery (July 26 – August 9, 2005) was the first "Return to Flight" mission following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Highlights included the first in-flight repair to the orbiter during a spacewalk. Mission duration was 333 hours, 33 minutes.

Awards and honors

Naval Aviator Astronaut badge Defense Superior Service Medalwith cluster Legion of Merit Defense Meritorious Service Medalwith two clusters Meritorious Service Medalwith star Achievement Medalwith star NASA Space Flight Medalwith three stars National Defense Service Medalwith star Global War on TerrorismService Medal Sea Service Deployment Ribbonwith star Overseas Service Ribbon Winifred Collins Award 2019 U.S. Naval Academy Distinguished Graduate Award (Her father was awarded this distinction in 2000).