Janice E. Voss

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Janice E. Voss bigraphy, stories - American astronaut

Janice E. Voss : biography

October 8, 1956 – February 7, 2012

Janice Elaine Voss (October 8, 1956 – February 6, 2012) was an American engineer and a NASA astronaut. She flew in space five times, jointly holding the record for American women. Voss died on February 6, 2012, from breast cancer.

Education

Voss graduated from Minnechaug Regional High School in 1972. She earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Purdue University while working on a co-op at the Johnson Space Center. She earned an S.M. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 1977. She went on to earn a doctorate in aeronautics/astronautics from MIT in 1987.

Notes

Category:1956 births Category:2012 deaths Category:American astronauts Category:Cancer deaths in Arizona Category:Deaths from breast cancer Category:Female astronauts Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Category:People from Rockford, Illinois Category:Purdue University alumni Category:Women in engineering Category:Women in technology

Career

Voss was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1990 and flew as a mission specialist on missions STS-57 (1993), STS-63 (1995), STS-83 (1997), STS-94 (1997) and STS-99 (2000). All of her flights included another female astronaut as well.

During her career as an astronaut, she participated in the first Shuttle rendezvous with the Mir space station on STS-63: it flew around the station, testing communications and inflight manoeuvres for later missions, but did not actually dock. As an STS-99 crew member on the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, she and her fellow crew members worked continuously in shifts to produce what was at the time the most accurate digital topographical map of the Earth.

From October 2004 to November 2007, she was Science Director for NASA’s Kepler Space Observatory, an Earth-orbiting satellite designed to find Earth-like extrasolar planets in nearby solar systems. It was launched in March 2009 and was still operational at the time of her death at age 55 from breast cancer.

At the Astronaut Office Station Branch, she served as the Payloads Lead. She also worked for Orbital Sciences Corporation in flight operations support.