Mary Cleave Obituary: First woman to fly on NASA shuttle after Challenger explosion, Astronaut Mary Cleave dies at 76
By William Rodriguez
Mary Cleave Obituary – Cause of Death: First woman to fly on NASA shuttle after Challenger explosion, Astronaut Mary Cleave dies at 76.
NASA are mourning the passing of astronaut Mary Cleave. In addition to her two spaceflights, she was also the first woman to oversee NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
Cleave died on Monday, November 27. She was the first woman to serve as an associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
According to NASA, Cleave was selected as an astronaut in May 1980. Her technical assignments included flight software verification in the SAIL (Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory), spacecraft communicator on five space shuttle flights, and malfunctions procedures book and crew equipment design.
Cleave launched on her first mission, STS-61B, aboard space shuttle Atlantis on Nov. 26,1985. During the flight, the crew deployed communications satellites, conducted two six-hour spacewalks to demonstrate space station construction techniques, operated the Continuous Flow Electrophoresis experiment for McDonnell Douglas and a Getaway Special container for Telesat and tested the Orbiter Experiments Digital Autopilot.
Cleave’s second mission, STS-30, which also was on Atlantis, launched May 4, 1989. It was a four-day flight during which the crew successfully deployed the Magellan Venus exploration spacecraft, the first planetary probe to be deployed from a space shuttle. Magellan arrived at Venus in August 1990 and mapped more than 95% of the surface. In addition, the crew also worked on secondary payloads involving indium crystal growth, electrical storms, and Earth observation studies.
