Janet Kavandi
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Janet Lynn Kavandi, a native of
Carthage, Missouri Carthage is a city in Jasper County, Missouri, United States. The population was 15,522 as of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Jasper County and is nicknamed "America's Maple Leaf City." History Jasper County was formed in 1841. ...
, (born July 17, 1959) is an American
scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...
and a
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
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 spa ...
. She is a veteran of three
Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...
missions, served as NASA's deputy chief of the Astronaut Office, and was the center director at the NASA
Glenn Research Center NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field is a NASA center within the cities of Brook Park, Ohio, Brook Park and Cleveland between Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and the Rocky River Reservation of Cleveland Metroparks, with a s ...
in Cleveland, Ohio, from March 2016 until her retirement from NASA in September 2019. She was inducted into the
United States Astronaut Hall of Fame The United States Astronaut Hall of Fame, located inside the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Heroes & Legends building on Merritt Island, Florida, honors American astronauts and features the world's largest collection of their personal memor ...
in 2019. Kavandi is president of
Sierra Space Sierra Space Corporation is a privately held aerospace and space technologies company headquartered in Louisville, Colorado, with additional facilities in Colorado, Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina and a testing site at the Marshall Space Fl ...
.


Education

Kavandi graduated
valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the class rank, highest-performing student of a graduation, graduating class of an academic institution in the United States. The valedictorian is generally determined by an academic institution's grade poin ...
in 1977 from Carthage Senior High School -
Carthage, Missouri Carthage is a city in Jasper County, Missouri, United States. The population was 15,522 as of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Jasper County and is nicknamed "America's Maple Leaf City." History Jasper County was formed in 1841. ...
. She went on to earn degrees in chemistry from
Missouri Southern State College Missouri Southern State University (Missouri Southern, MSSU, or MoSo) is a public university in Joplin, Missouri. It was established in 1937 as Joplin Junior College. The university enrolled 4,087 students in Fall 2023. History Missouri Souther ...
(bachelor's, 1980), the
Missouri University of Science and Technology Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T or S&T) is a public research university in Rolla, Missouri. It is a member institution of the University of Missouri System. Most of its 6,456 students (2023) study engineering, busin ...
(masters, 1982), and the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...
(doctorate, 1990).


Career

Following graduation in 1982, Kavandi accepted a position at
Eagle-Picher Industries EaglePicher Technologies is a privately held American manufacturing company known for its battery technology, energetic devices, and battery management systems. The company started in 1843 as the White Lead Company in Cincinnati, Ohio. A merger w ...
in Joplin, Missouri, as an engineer in new battery development for defense applications. In 1984, she accepted a position as an engineer in the Power Systems Technology Department of
Boeing Defense, Space & Security Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) is a division of Boeing, the Boeing Company based in Arlington, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. The division builds military Military aircraft, airplanes, Military helicopter, rotorcraft, and Missile, missil ...
in Seattle, Washington. She served as the lead engineer of secondary power for the Short Range Attack Missile II, and principal technical staff representative involved in the design and development of thermal batteries for
Sea Lance The UUM-125 Sea Lance, known early in development as the ''Common ASW Standoff Weapon'', was to be an American standoff anti-submarine missile, initially intended to carry a W89 thermonuclear warhead. It was conceived in 1980 as a successor to ...
and the
Lightweight Exo-Atmospheric Projectile The Lightweight Exo-atmospheric Projectile (LEAP) is a lightweight miniaturized kinetic kill vehicle designed to destroy incoming ballistic missiles both inside and outside the Earth's atmosphere.Paul Baker, Buster Kelley, Anne Avetissian, ''Li ...
. Other programs she supported include Space Station, Lunar and Mars Base studies,
Inertial Upper Stage The Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), originally designated the Interim Upper Stage, was a Multistage rocket, two-stage, Solid-propellant rocket, solid-fueled space launch system developed by Boeing for the United States Air Force beginning in 1976 for ...
, Advanced Orbital Transfer Vehicle,
Getaway Special Getaway Special was a NASA program that offered interested individuals, or groups, opportunities to fly small experiments aboard the Space Shuttle. Over the 20-year history of the program, over 170 individual missions were flown. The program, whi ...
s,
Air Launched Cruise Missile An air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) is a cruise missile that is launched from a military aircraft. Current versions are typically standoff weapons which are used to attack predetermined land and naval targets with conventional, nuclear or ther ...
,
Minuteman Minutemen were members of the organized New England colonial militia companies trained in weaponry, tactics, and military strategies during the American Revolutionary War. They were known for being ready at a minute's notice, hence the name. Min ...
, and
Peacekeeper Peacekeeper may refer to: General * A person involved in peacekeeping ** United Nations peacekeeping * Peace officer * Conservator of the peace Military * The LGM-118 Peacekeeper, a land-based nuclear ICBM ** Peacekeeper Rail Garrison, a mob ...
. In 1986, while still working for Boeing, she was accepted into graduate school at the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...
, where she began working toward her doctorate in analytical chemistry. Her doctoral dissertation involved the development of a pressure-indicating coating that uses oxygen quenching of porphyrin
photoluminescence Photoluminescence (abbreviated as PL) is light emission from any form of matter after the absorption of photons (electromagnetic radiation). It is one of many forms of luminescence (light emission) and is initiated by photoexcitation (i.e. phot ...
to provide continuous surface pressure maps of aerodynamic test models in wind tunnels. Her work on pressure indicating paints has resulted in two
patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
s.


NASA career

Kavandi was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in December 1994 and reported to the Johnson Space Center in March 1995. Following an initial year of training, she was assigned to the Payloads and Habitability Branch, where she supported payload integration for the International Space Station. Kavandi served as a mission specialist on STS-91 (June 2–12, 1998), the 9th and final Shuttle-Mir docking mission, concluding the joint U.S./Russian Phase 1 program. Following the mission, she worked as a CAPCOM (spacecraft communicator) in NASA's Mission Control Center. On her second mission, she served aboard STS-99 (February 11–22, 2000), the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which mapped more than 47 million miles of the Earth's land surface to provide data for a highly accurate three-dimensional topographical map. Kavandi subsequently worked in the Robotics Branch, where she trained on both the shuttle and space station robotic manipulator systems. On her most recent mission, she served aboard STS-104/ISS Assembly Flight 7A (July 12–24, 2001) on the tenth mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle crew installed the joint airlock "Quest" and conducted joint operations with the
Expedition 2 Expedition 2 (also called ISS EO-2) was the second long-duration spaceflight aboard the International Space Station, immediately following Expedition 1. Its three-person crew stayed aboard the station from March to August 2001. In addition to st ...
crew. Kavandi had trained in the
Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory The Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) is an astronaut training facility and neutral buoyancy pool operated by NASA and located at the Sonny Carter Training Facility, near the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The NBL's main feature is a ...
for spacewalking, but she did not take a spacewalk during STS-104. Following her last mission, Kavandi again served as lead for the Payloads and Habitability Branch, then as the branch chief for the International Space Station (ISS). She was responsible for the training, operations, safety, and habitability of crews on board the ISS, as well as the hardware and software development and design reviews. She was also responsible for the scientific payloads that the ISS crews operate on-orbit and for coordination between international partners for visiting vehicles and associated operations. In 2005, Kavandi accepted a position as deputy chief of the Astronaut Office and served in that position until February 2008. Following that assignment, she became deputy director, flight crew operations, and then director, flight crew operations
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. ...
. A three-flight veteran, Kavandi has logged over 33 days in space, traveling over 13.1 million miles in 535 Earth orbits. In March 2016, Kavandi succeeded Jim Free as the center director at the NASA
Glenn Research Center NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field is a NASA center within the cities of Brook Park, Ohio, Brook Park and Cleveland between Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and the Rocky River Reservation of Cleveland Metroparks, with a s ...
in Cleveland, Ohio. In September 2019, she retired from NASA and started at
Sierra Nevada Corporation Sierra Nevada Corporation (also styled SNC) is an American aerospace, defense, electronics, engineering and manufacturing corporation that specializes in aircraft modification, integration and other space technologies. The corporation contracts ...
.


Awards and honors

*
National Honor Society The National Honor Society (NHS) is one of the oldest, largest, and most widely recognized cocurricular student organizations in American high schools, with 1.4 million members. The purpose of the NHS is to create enthusiasm for scholarship, to ...
, 1977. *Valedictorian of Carthage Senior High School, 1977. *Presidential Scholarship from Missouri Southern State University, 1977. *Graduated
magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...
from Missouri Southern State University, 1980. *Certificates for Team Excellence and Performance Excellence from Boeing Missile Systems, 1991. *
NASA Space Flight Medal The NASA Space Flight Medal is a decoration of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. According to its statutes, it is awarded "for significant achievement or service during individual participation as a civilian or military astronau ...
s *
NASA Exceptional Service Medal The NASA Exceptional Service Medal is an award granted to U.S. government employees for significant sustained performance characterized by unusual initiative or creative ability that clearly demonstrates substantial improvement in engineering, a ...
s, 2001 and 2002. *
NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal The NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal is awarded to US government employees only for notably outstanding leadership which affects technical or administrative programs of NASA. The leadership award may be given for an act of leadership, for sustain ...
, 2006. *
United States Astronaut Hall of Fame The United States Astronaut Hall of Fame, located inside the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Heroes & Legends building on Merritt Island, Florida, honors American astronauts and features the world's largest collection of their personal memor ...
, 2019.


References


External links


NASA biography
October 2019 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kavandi, Janet Lynn 1959 births Living people Missouri Southern State University alumni Missouri University of Science and Technology alumni NASA civilian astronauts People from Carthage, Missouri People from Springfield, Missouri United States Astronaut Hall of Fame inductees University of Washington alumni American women astronauts Space Shuttle program astronauts Center Directors of NASA Mir crew members