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Shannon Walker
Shannon Walker (born June 4, 1965) is an American physicist and a NASA astronaut selected in 2004. She launched on her first mission into space on June 25, 2010, onboard Soyuz TMA-19 and spent over 163 days in space. She returned to space for her second long-duration mission on November 15, 2020, onboard SpaceX Crew-1, the first operational flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft. Early life and education Walker was born in Southwest Houston, where she graduated from Westbury High School in 1983. She studied physics at Rice University in Texas, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Physics in 1987. Walker began her professional career with the Rockwell Space Operations Company at the Johnson Space Center later that year as a robotics flight controller for the Space Shuttle program. She worked several Space Shuttle missions as a flight controller in the Mission Control Center, including STS-27, STS-32, STS-51, STS-56, STS-60, STS-61, and STS-66. From 1990 to 1993, Walker ...
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Houston
Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of Harris County, Texas, Harris County, as well as the principal city of the Greater Houston metropolitan area, the fifth-most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States and the List of Texas metropolitan areas, second-most populous in Texas after Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, Dallas–Fort Worth. With a population of 2,314,157 in 2023, Houston is the List of United States cities by population, fourth-most populous city in the United States after New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and the List of North American cities by population, sixth-most populous city in North America. Houston is the southeast anchor of the greater megaregion known as the Texas Triangle. Comprising a land area of , Houston is the List of United S ...
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SpaceX Crew-1 Logo
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the company has made numerous advancements in rocket propulsion, reusable launch vehicles, human spaceflight and satellite constellation technology. , SpaceX is the world's dominant space launch provider, its launch cadence eclipsing all others, including private competitors and national programs like the Chinese space program. SpaceX, NASA, and the United States Armed Forces work closely together by means of Government contractor, governmental contracts. SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk in 2002 with a vision of decreasing the costs of space launches, paving the way to SpaceX ambition of colonizing Mars, a sustainable colony on Mars. In 2008, Falcon 1 successfully launched into orbit after three failed launch attempts. The company then pivoted towar ...
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STS-32
STS-32 was the 33rd mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program, and the ninth launch of . Launched on January 9, 1990, it marked the first use of Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A since 1986; it also marked the first use of Mobile launcher platform, Mobile Launcher Platform-3 (MLP-3) in the Space Shuttle program. STS-32 was, at the time, the longest shuttle mission yet conducted, with a duration of nearly 11 days. Before STS-32, the only mission of the same duration had been STS-9 in 1983. On January 20, 1990, STS-32 executed the third night landing of the shuttle program. STS-32 was also the first Shuttle mission of the 1990s. The mission was technically designated STS-32R, as the original STS-32 designator had been used internally for STS-61-C, the 24th Space Shuttle mission. Official documentation and flight paperwork for that mission had contained the designator STS-32 throughout. Flights with the STS-26 through STS-33 designators used the R in their documentation to avoi ...
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STS-27
STS-27 was the 27th NASA Space Shuttle program, Space Shuttle mission, and the third flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis, Space Shuttle ''Atlantis''. Launching on December 2, 1988, on a four-day mission, it was the second shuttle flight after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster of January 1986. STS-27 carried a classified information, classified payload for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), ultimately determined to be a Lacrosse (satellite), Lacrosse surveillance satellite. The vessel's heat shielding was substantially damaged during lift-off, and crew members thought that they would die during reentry. This was a situation that was similar to the one that would Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, prove fatal 15 years later on STS-107. Compared to the damage that ''Space Shuttle Columbia, Columbia'' sustained on STS-107, ''Atlantis'' experienced more extensive damage. However, this was over less critical areas and the missing tile was over ...
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Mission Control Center
A mission control center (MCC, sometimes called a flight control center or operations center) is a facility that manages spaceflight, space flights, usually from the point of launch until landing or the end of the mission. It is part of the ground segment of spacecraft operations. A staff of flight controllers and other support personnel monitor all aspects of the mission using telemetry, and send commands to the vehicle using ground stations. Personnel supporting the mission from an MCC can include representatives of the attitude control system, electric power, power, spacecraft propulsion, propulsion, thermal, attitude dynamics and control, attitude dynamics, orbital operations and other subsystem disciplines. The training for these missions usually falls under the responsibility of the flight controllers, typically including extensive rehearsals in the MCC. Government-operated Mission Control Centers ;America * Launch Control Center, NASA Launch Control Center controls NASA ...
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Space Shuttle Program
The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development, as a proposed nuclear shuttle in the plan was cancelled in 1972. It flew 135 missions and carried 355 astronauts from 16 countries, many on multiple trips. The Space Shuttle, composed of an Space Shuttle orbiter, orbiter launched with two reusable Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster, solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank, carried up to eight astronauts and up to of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). When its mission was complete, the orbiter would atmospheric reentry, reenter the Earth's atmosphere and land like a glider (aircraft), glider at either ...
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Johnson Space Center
The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight controller, flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late U.S. president and Texas native, Lyndon B. Johnson, by an act of the United States Senate on February 19, 1973. JSC consists of a complex of 100 buildings constructed on in Clear Lake (region), Clear Lake. The center is home to NASA Astronaut Corps, NASA's astronaut corps, and is responsible for training astronauts from both the U.S. and its international partners. It also houses the Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center, which has provided the flight controller, flight control function for every NASA human spaceflight since Gemini 4 (including Apollo program, Apollo, Skylab, Apollo–Soyuz, and Space Shuttle program, Space Shuttle). It is popularly known by its radio call signs "Mission Contr ...
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Physics
Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which relates to the order of nature, or, in other words, to the regular succession of events." It is one of the most fundamental scientific disciplines. "Physics is one of the most fundamental of the sciences. Scientists of all disciplines use the ideas of physics, including chemists who study the structure of molecules, paleontologists who try to reconstruct how dinosaurs walked, and climatologists who study how human activities affect the atmosphere and oceans. Physics is also the foundation of all engineering and technology. No engineer could design a flat-screen TV, an interplanetary spacecraft, or even a better mousetrap without first understanding the basic laws of physics. (...) You will come to see physics as a towering achievement of ...
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Westbury High School (Houston)
Westbury High School is a secondary school located in the Brays Oaks,Brays Oaks District
" Brays Oaks. Retrieved on October 23, 2011.
of , near the Westbury neighborhood. It has grades 9 through 12, and is part of the

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Crew Dragon
Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed, manufactured, and operated by the American space company SpaceX for flights to the International Space Station (ISS) and private spaceflight missions. The spacecraft, which consists of a reusable space capsule and an expendable Service module, trunk module, has two variants: the 4-person Crew Dragon and Cargo Dragon, a replacement for the SpaceX Dragon 1, Dragon 1 cargo capsule. The spacecraft launches atop a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket, and the capsule returns to Earth through splashdown. Crew Dragon's primary role is to transport crews to and from the ISS under NASA's Commercial Crew Program, a task handled by the Space Shuttle until it was Retirement of the Space Shuttle, retired in 2011. It will be joined by Boeing Starliner, Boeing's Starliner in this role when NASA certifies it. Crew Dragon is also used for commercial flights to ISS and other destinations and is expected to be used to transport people to and fr ...
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SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the company has made numerous advancements in rocket propulsion, reusable launch vehicles, human spaceflight and satellite constellation technology. , SpaceX is the world's dominant space launch provider, its launch cadence eclipsing all others, including private competitors and national programs like the Chinese space program. SpaceX, NASA, and the United States Armed Forces work closely together by means of Government contractor, governmental contracts. SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk in 2002 with a vision of decreasing the costs of space launches, paving the way to SpaceX ambition of colonizing Mars, a sustainable colony on Mars. In 2008, Falcon 1 successfully launched into orbit after three failed launch attempts. The company then pivoted towar ...
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Astronaut
An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spacecraft. Although generally reserved for professional space travelers, the term is sometimes applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists, and space tourists. "Astronaut" technically applies to all human space travelers regardless of nationality. However, astronauts fielded by Russia or the Soviet Union are typically known instead as cosmonauts (from the Russian "kosmos" (космос), meaning "space", also borrowed from Greek ). Comparatively recent developments in crewed spaceflight made by China have led to the rise of the term taikonaut (from the Standard Chinese, Mandarin "tàikōng" (), meaning "space"), although its use is somewhat informal and its origin is unclear. In China, the People' ...
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