geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

oceanographer Oceanography (), also known as oceanology, sea science, ocean science, and marine science, is the scientific study of the ocean, including its physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of top ...

NASA astronaut The NASA Astronaut Corps is a unit of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) that selects, trains, and provides astronauts as crew members for U.S. and international space missions. It is based at Johnson Space Ce ...

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

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. ...

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, a fourth in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, Bible Hill, and a second medical school campus ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

NASA Astronaut Group 8 NASA Astronaut Group 8 was a group of 35 astronauts announced on January 16, 1978. It was the first NASA selection since NASA Astronaut Group 6, Group 6 in 1967, and was the largest group to that date. The class was the first to include fe ...

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

pressure suit A pressure suit is a protective suit worn by high-altitude pilots who may fly at altitudes where the air pressure is too low for an unprotected person to survive, even when breathing pure oxygen at positive pressure. Such suits may be either fu ...

STS-41-G STS-41-G (formerly STS-17) was the 13th flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the sixth flight of Space Shuttle ''Challenger''. ''Challenger'' launched on October 5, 1984, and conducted the second shuttle landing at Kennedy Space Center o ...

extra-vehicular activity Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmental support. EVA i ...

STS-31 STS-31 was the 35th mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the tenth flight of the Space Shuttle ''Discovery''. The primary purpose of this mission was the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) into low Earth orbit. ''Discovery ...

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...

STS-45 STS-45 was a 1992 NASA Space Shuttle mission using the . Its almost nine-day scientific mission was with a non-deployable payload of instruments. It was the 46th Space Shuttle mission and the 11th for ''Atlantis''. Crew Crew seat assignm ...

Payload Commander Astronauts hold a variety of ranks and positions. Each of these roles carries responsibilities that are essential to the operation of a spacecraft. A spacecraft's cockpit, filled with sophisticated equipment, requires skills differing from those ...

Spacelab Spacelab was a reusable laboratory developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory comprised multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier, ...

Mission to Planet Earth NASA Earth Science, formerly called NASA Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) and Mission To Planet Earth (MTPE), is a NASA research program "to develop a scientific understanding of the Earth system and its response to natural and human-induced chan ...

Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere The under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere, or USC(OA), is a high-ranking official in the United States Department of Commerce and the principal advisor to the United States Secretary of Commerce on the environmental and scientifi ...

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...

US Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States, dedicated to history of aviation, human flight and space exploration. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, ...

Potomac Institute for Policy Studies The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies is an independent, 501(c)(3), not-for-profit public policy research institute located in Arlington, Virginia. The institute was founded in , shortly after the Congressional Office of Technology Assessme ...

Challenger Deep The Challenger Deep is the List of submarine topographical features#List of oceanic trenches, deepest known point of the seabed of Earth, located in the western Pacific Ocean at the southern end of the Mariana Trench, in the ocean territory o ...

Mariana Trench The Mariana Trench is an oceanic trench located in the western Pacific Ocean, about east of the Mariana Islands; it is the deep sea, deepest oceanic trench on Earth. It is crescent-shaped and measures about in length and in width. The maxi ...

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is a council, chartered (or re-chartered) in each administration with a broad mandate to advise the president of the United States on science and technology. The current PCAST w ...

Paterson, New Jersey Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. She had a brother, Grant. In 1958 the family moved to the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...

in California, where her father worked in the aerospace industry for

Marquardt Corporation Marquardt Corporation was an aeronautical engineering firm started in 1944 as Marquardt Aircraft Company and initially dedicated almost entirely to the development of the ramjet engine. Marquardt designs were developed from the mid-1940s into t ...

. She was in the first grade at Havenhurst Elementary School, where

Sally Ride Sally Kristen Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012) was an American astronaut and physicist. Born in Los Angeles, she joined NASA in 1978, and in 1983 became the first American woman and the third woman to fly in space, after cosmonauts V ...

was a classmate, but the school closed in 1958 to make way for

Van Nuys Airport Van Nuys Airport is a public airport in the Van Nuys neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles. The airport is operated by Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), a branch of the Los Angeles city government, which also operates Los Angeles Internat ...

, and neither woman could recall meeting the other. During her school years she was a

girl scout A Scout, Boy Scout, Girl Scout or, in some countries, a Pathfinder is a participant in the Scout Movement, usually aged 10–18 years, who engage in learning scoutcraft and outdoor and other special interest activities. Some Scout organization ...

. Sullivan graduated from William Howard Taft High School in the Woodland Hills district of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, California, in 1969. She took both French and German in high school, and resolved to have a career in the foreign service. She chose to enter the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

(UCSC), on account of its renowned Russian studies program. The university required that humanities students take three science classes and vice versa. She chose to take courses in

marine biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many scientific classification, phyla, family (biology), families and genera have some species that live in the sea and ...

,

topology Topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of a Mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformat ...

and

oceanography Oceanography (), also known as oceanology, sea science, ocean science, and marine science, is the scientific study of the ocean, including its physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of to ...

. She enjoyed these, and altered her course to take in more science subjects. She was an exchange student at the

University of Bergen The University of Bergen () is a public university, public research university in Bergen, Norway. As of 2021, the university had over 4,000 employees and 19,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 1946 consolidating several sci ...

in Norway for the 1971–1972 school year and the two summers around it, and decided to change her major to oceanography. She was awarded a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in

Earth Sciences Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres ...

from UCSC in 1973, and a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

in

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

from

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, a fourth in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, Bible Hill, and a second medical school campus ...

and the

Bedford Institute of Oceanography The Bedford Institute of Oceanography (BIO) is a major Government of Canada ocean research facility located in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. BIO is the largest ocean research station in Canada. Established in 1962 as Canada's first, and currently la ...

in

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

, Canada, in 1978, writing her doctoral thesis on ''The structure and evolution of the Newfoundland Basin'' under the supervision of

Michael John Keen Michael John Keen (1935–1991) was a British geologist who was born in Seaford, Sussex and emigrated to Canada in 1961. From 1961 to 1977, he was a professor at Dalhousie University in the Department of Geology. He chaired the department for sev ...

. While at Dalhousie, she participated in several oceanographic expeditions that studied the floors of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

NASA career

Selection and training

When Sullivan visited her family for Christmas in 1976, her brother Grant, an aerospace engineer and corporate jet pilot, told her that the

National Aeronautics and Space Administration The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the United States's civil space program, aeronautics research and space research. Established in 1958, it su ...

(NASA) had issued a call for applications for a new group of astronauts. NASA had made it known that it was interested in recruiting women, and Grant encouraged her to apply. He had applied for both pilot and

mission specialist Mission specialist (MS) is a term for a specific position held by astronauts who are tasked with conducting a range of scientific, medical, or engineering experiments during a spaceflight mission. These specialists were usually assigned to a s ...

positions. After she returned to Nova Scotia she saw a NASA ad in a science journal, and decided to apply. She reasoned that the

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. ...

was a kind of research vessel, but her dream was still to descend to the ocean floor in a

submersible A submersible is an underwater vehicle which needs to be transported and supported by a larger ship, watercraft or dock, platform. This distinguishes submersibles from submarines, which are self-supporting and capable of prolonged independent ope ...

. That prospect came closer when she received an offer from William B. F. Ryan from the

Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) is a research, research institution specializing in the Earth science and climate change. Though part of Columbia University, it is located on a separate closed campus in Palisades, New York. The obs ...

at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

to join his team exploring the ocean in the submersible . Ryan had been an unsuccessful finalist for NASA Astronaut Group 6 in 1967, and he counseled her to wait for NASA to call. They both felt that the odds on being accepted were long, but Sullivan did not join Ryan's team while she waited to hear about her selection. Grant's application was unsuccessful, but Kathryn was invited to come to the

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. ...

(JSC) for a week of interviews and physical examinations commencing on November 14, 1977. She was the only woman in this group of twenty-five finalists. Over the course of a week she was given physical and psychological examinations, and was interviewed by a selection panel chaired by George Abbey. She was successful, and her selection as one of the six women among the 35 members of NASA Astronaut Group 8 was publicly announced on January 16, 1978. It was the first astronaut group to include women. Sullivan was one of the three members of the group (the others being Sally Ride and Steve Hawley) for whom NASA astronaut would be their first full-time paid job since leaving university. Sullivan Views the Earth - GPN-2000-001082

Sullivan Views the Earth - GPN-2000-001082

On August 31, 1979, NASA announced that the 35 astronaut candidates had completed their training and evaluation, and were now officially astronauts, qualified for selection on space flight crews. To mark the occasion the

Chief of the Astronaut Office The Chief of the Astronaut Office is the most senior leadership position for active astronauts at the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Chief Astronaut serves as head of the NASA Astronaut Corps and is the principal ...

,

John Young John Young most commonly refers to: *John Young (astronaut) (1930–2018), American astronaut * John Young, 1st Baron Lisgar (1807–1876), British diplomat and politician John Young may also refer to: Academics * John Young (professor of Greek) ...

, presented each of them with a silver NASA

astronaut pin United States astronaut badges are the various badges of the United States which are awarded to military and civilian personnel of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the various child departments of the Department of Defense, or ...

; they would become eligible for a gold one after they had flown in space. Like other astronaut groups before them, each was given a particular assignment. Sullivan helped develop systems management checklists for the first Space Shuttle flights. To give the newcomers more experience, they were periodically rotated to different jobs, so after nine months she became a mission manager at NASA's High Altitude Research Project, based at nearby

Ellington Air Force Base Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base is a joint installation shared by various active component and reserve component military units, as well as aircraft flight operations of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under the aegi ...

. She became the first woman to be certified to wear a

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

pressure suit A pressure suit is a protective suit worn by high-altitude pilots who may fly at altitudes where the air pressure is too low for an unprotected person to survive, even when breathing pure oxygen at positive pressure. Such suits may be either fu ...

, and on July 1, 1979, she set an unofficial sustained American aviation altitude record for women of during a four-hour flight in a NASA WB-57F reconnaissance aircraft. For the first Space Shuttle mission,

STS-1 STS-1 (Space Transportation System-1) was the first orbital spaceflight of NASA's Space Shuttle program. The first orbiter, ''Columbia'', launched on April 12, 1981, and returned on April 14, 1981, 54.5 hours later, having orbited the Earth 3 ...

, Sullivan was assigned to media support, working with Vic Ratner and Bob Walker on

ABC News Radio ABC News Radio is the news radio service of ABC Audio, a division of ABC News (United States), ABC News in the United States. Formerly known as ABC Radio News, ABC News Radio feeds, through Skyview Networks, five-minute newscasts on the hour ...

. For the

STS-2 STS-2 was the second Space Shuttle mission conducted by NASA, and the second flight of the orbiter Space Shuttle Columbia, ''Columbia''. The mission, crewed by Joe Engle, Joe H. Engle and Richard H. Truly, launched on November 12, 1981, and lan ...

mission she flew in the back seat of a NASA

Northrop T-38 Talon The Northrop T-38 Talon is a two-seat, twinjet Supersonic aircraft, supersonic jet trainer designed and produced by the American aircraft manufacturer Northrop Corporation. It was the world's first supersonic trainer as well as the most produced. ...

chase plane piloted by fellow astronaut

Hoot Gibson Edmund Richard "Hoot" Gibson (August 6, 1892 – August 23, 1962) was an American rodeo champion, film actor, film director, and producer. While acting and stunt work began as a sideline to Gibson's focus on rodeo, he successfully transitioned ...

, photographing the Space Shuttle tiles to verify that none had been damaged. She was then assigned to the support crew at the

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...

(KSC), along with fellow astronauts Steve Hawley,

Loren Shriver Loren James Shriver (born September 23, 1944) is a former NASA astronaut, aviator, and a retired US Air Force Colonel. Career Shriver graduated from Paton High School in 1962. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineerin ...

and

Don Williams Donald Ray Williams (May 27, 1939 – September 8, 2017) was an American country music singer, songwriter, and 2010 inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Country Music Hall of Fame. He began his solo career in 1971, singing p ...

, for the next four Space Shuttle missions.

STS-41-G

In July 1983 Sullivan joined the Mission Development group, which organised and supervised the development of payloads for future missions that did not yet have a crew assigned to them. She was assigned the Office of Space and Terrestrial Applications' OSTA-3 satellite and the Orbital Refueling System (ORS). The objective of the latter was to demonstrate that the Space Shuttle could be used to refuel a satellite in

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an ...

, thereby extending its useful life. For this the aging Landsat 4 satellite was chosen. In September 1983 she was officially assigned to this mission, which was designated

STS-41-G STS-41-G (formerly STS-17) was the 13th flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the sixth flight of Space Shuttle ''Challenger''. ''Challenger'' launched on October 5, 1984, and conducted the second shuttle landing at Kennedy Space Center o ...

. Sally Ride was also assigned to this mission, so it became the first time that two women were in space together. The mission lifted off from the KSC in the on October 5, 1984. Sullivan performed the first

extra-vehicular activity Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmental support. EVA i ...

(EVA) by an American woman on October 11, 1984. With fellow mission specialist

David Leestma David Cornell Leestma (born May 6, 1949) is a former American astronaut and retired Captain (naval), Captain in the United States Navy. Personal data Born May 6, 1949, in Muskegon, Michigan. He and his wife have six children. He enjoys golfing, ...

, she performed a 3.5-hour spacewalk in which they operated the ORS to show that a

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

could be refueled in orbit. They installed a valve into a satellite propulsion system that mimicked that of Landsat4 and transferred of

hydrazine Hydrazine is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a simple pnictogen hydride, and is a colourless flammable liquid with an ammonia-like odour. Hydrazine is highly hazardous unless handled in solution as, for example, hydraz ...

to it using the ORS. This demonstrated that the procedure could be performed with a real satellite. During the eight-day mission, the crew also deployed the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite, conducted scientific observations of Earth with the OSTA-3 pallet (including the SIR-B radar, FILE, and MAPS experiments) and large format camera (LFC), and conducted several in-cabin experiments as well as activating eight "

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 ...

" canisters.

STS-41G STS-41-G (formerly STS-17) was the 13th flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the sixth flight of Space Shuttle ''Challenger''. ''Challenger'' launched on October 5, 1984, and conducted the second shuttle landing at Kennedy Space Center o ...

completed 132 orbits of Earth in 197.5 hours, before landing back at the KSC on October 13, 1984.

STS-61-J

Sullivan and Ride Show Sleep Restraints - GPN-2000-001032

In September 1985 Sullivan was assigned to the

STS-61-J STS-61-J was a canceled launch of NASA Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'', planned for August 1986 to launch the Hubble Space Telescope. It was canceled due to the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster earlier in the year. The crew members were to b ...

mission, which was scheduled to deploy the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...

(HST) in August 1986. The original intention was that the HST would be periodically retrieved by the Space Shuttle and returned to Earth for maintenance, although some components were designed for servicing in-orbit. In 1984 NASA management decided this would be too dangerous and too costly, and that the HST would instead be maintained in-orbit by periodic servicing missions for up to fifteen years. Convinced that NASA would attempt to fix any component that jeopardized the HST's mission whether it had been designated as serviceable or not, Sullivan pressed for as many components as possible to be replaceable or amenable to in-orbit servicing. Working with fellow astronaut Bruce McCandless II and NASA and

Lockheed Corporation The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer. Lockheed was founded in 1926 and merged in 1995 with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin. Its founder, Allan Lockheed, had earlier founded the similarly named but otherwise-u ...

engineers, she ensured that there would be a complete set of tools and procedures for as many HST maintenance missions as possible. The STS-61-J mission was cancelled after the January 1986 Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster, but the crew continued to work on the mission objectives. At this point, just fourteen systems were designated as "on-orbit maintainable". There were up to twelve units in each one, so forty-three were designated as Block I "on-orbit replaceable units" (ORUs). Lockheed produced two lists of additional units that could be modified to be serviceable; there were twenty-six systems and fifty-one units in BlockII and eight systems and sixteen units in BlockIII. With more time available, an attempt was now made to work through these. Meanwhile, Sullivan served as

capsule communicator Flight controllers are personnel who aid space flight by working in mission control centers such as NASA's Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center or ESA's European Space Operations Centre. Flight controllers work at computer consoles ...

(CAPCOM) for

STS-26 STS-26 was the 26th NASA Space Shuttle mission and the seventh flight of the orbiter ''Discovery''. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on September 29, 1988, and landed four days later on October 3, 1988. STS-26 was decla ...

, the Space Shuttle's October 1988 return-to-flight mission. She chose the wakeup music, including a contribution from

Robin Williams Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and comedie ...

, who provided a pastiche of his ''

Good Morning, Vietnam ''Good Morning, Vietnam'' is a 1987 American war comedy film written by Mitch Markowitz and directed by Barry Levinson. Set in Saigon in 1965, during the Vietnam War, the film stars Robin Williams as an Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) D ...

'' radio greeting. She continued working as CAPCOM on the

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 ...

and

STS-29 STS-29 was the 28th NASA Space Shuttle mission, during which Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' inserted a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) into Earth orbit. It was the third shuttle mission following the ''Challenger'' disaster in 1986, a ...

missions.

STS-31

At the end of March 1989, Sullivan returned to working on the HST mission, which was now designated

STS-31 STS-31 was the 35th mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the tenth flight of the Space Shuttle ''Discovery''. The primary purpose of this mission was the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) into low Earth orbit. ''Discovery ...

. The crew was the same, except that Loren Shriver replaced Young as mission commander. STS-31 was launched from KSC, on April 24, 1990. During this five-day mission, crew members aboard the deployed the HST, and conducted middeck experiments involving the study of

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

crystal growth, polymer membrane processing, and the effects of weightlessness and magnetic fields on an ion arc. They also operated several cameras, including the IMAX cargo bay camera, for Earth observations. Their

apogee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. The line of apsides (also called apse line, or major axis of the orbit) is the line connecting the two extreme values. Apsides perta ...

of above Earth was the highest yet achieved by a Space Shuttle orbiter. (It was later exceeded by the

STS-82 STS-82 was the 22nd flight of the Space Shuttle Space Shuttle Discovery, ''Discovery'' and the 82nd mission of the Space Shuttle program. It was NASA's second mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, during which ''Discovery's'' crew repai ...

HST servicing mission.) The HST was deployed on the second day using ''Discovery''s

Canadarm Canadarm or Canadarm1 (officially Shuttle Remote Manipulator System or SRMS, also SSRMS) is a series of robotic arms that were used on the Space Shuttle orbiters to deploy, manoeuvre, and capture payloads. After the Space Shuttle ''Columbia' ...

with the Shuttle doors opened towards the ground. In case McCandless and Sullivan had to perform an EVA, the Shuttle's cabin pressure was lowered from to . At one point McCandless and Sullivan donned their space suits and entered the airlock to perform an emergency EVA to help deploy the Hubble's solar arrays, but this was not required, as the engineers were able to deploy them with a series of commands from Earth. ''Discovery'' followed the HST for the next two days in case intervention was required. After making 76 orbits of Earth in 121 hours, ''Discovery'' landed at

Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, California, Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino County and a souther ...

in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, on April 29, 1990.

STS-45

Sullivan served as

Payload Commander Astronauts hold a variety of ranks and positions. Each of these roles carries responsibilities that are essential to the operation of a spacecraft. A spacecraft's cockpit, filled with sophisticated equipment, requires skills differing from those ...

on

STS-45 STS-45 was a 1992 NASA Space Shuttle mission using the . Its almost nine-day scientific mission was with a non-deployable payload of instruments. It was the 46th Space Shuttle mission and the 11th for ''Atlantis''. Crew Crew seat assignm ...

, the first

Spacelab Spacelab was a reusable laboratory developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory comprised multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier, ...

mission dedicated to NASA's

Mission to Planet Earth NASA Earth Science, formerly called NASA Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) and Mission To Planet Earth (MTPE), is a NASA research program "to develop a scientific understanding of the Earth system and its response to natural and human-induced chan ...

. It lifted off in the ''Atlantis'' on March 24, 1992. During this nine-day mission, the crew operated the twelve experiments that constituted the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science cargo. This was the first of several flights designed to study the composition of the mid-atmosphere and its variations over an eleven-year

solar cycle The Solar cycle, also known as the solar magnetic activity cycle, sunspot cycle, or Schwabe cycle, is a periodic 11-year change in the Sun's activity measured in terms of Modern Maximum, variations in the number of observed sunspots on the Sun ...

, the regular period of energetic activity by the Sun. The mission also included the Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet Instrument (SSBUV) to measure the

ozone layer The ozone layer or ozone shield is a region of Earth's stratosphere that absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorbs most of the Sun's ultraviolet radiation. It contains a high concentration of ozone (O3) in relation to other parts of the a ...

in concert with other measurements taken by satellites. The mission also carried the Oscar statuette for the

Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award is awarded periodically by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to "creative producers, whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production". The award is named f ...

that film maker

George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. He created the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman ...

received on March 30, the presentation being made by the STS-45 crew from Earth orbit. Sullivan had special responsibility for a dose-response experiment that involved firing an

electron The electron (, or in nuclear reactions) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary charge, elementary electric charge. It is a fundamental particle that comprises the ordinary matter that makes up the universe, along with up qua ...

pulse into the upper atmosphere and recording the luminosity induced with a special camera. ''Atlantis'' landed at the Kennedy Space Center on April 2, 1992. Sullivan left NASA in 1993 having flown on three Space Shuttle missions and logged 532 hours in space.

Military career

Sullivan became an adjunct professor of geology at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

in Houston in 1985. In this role she joined an oceanographic research cruise in 1988, where she met

Andreas Rechnitzer Andreas Buchwald Rechnitzer (November 30, 1924 – August 22, 2005) was an American oceanographer. With Carl Hubbs, he discovered the striped yellow butterfly fish that served as the logo of Birch Aquarium. He helped develop the first SCUBA divi ...

, a

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

oceanographer, and she started thinking about joining the

US Naval Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2004, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called reservists, are categorized as being in either the S ...

(USNR) as an oceanography officer. She spoke to McCandless about it; he said he was having lunch with the

Secretary of the Navy The Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department within the United States Department of Defense. On March 25, 2025, John Phelan was confirm ...

and would raise the matter. Later that year, Sullivan became a

direct commission officer A direct commission officer (DCO) is a United States uniformed officer who has received an appointed commission without the typical prerequisites for achieving a commission, such as attending a four-year service academy, a four-year or two-yea ...

in the USNR with the rank of lieutenant commander. In October 1990 she assumed command of a small specialized unit of oceanographers and meteorologists. Based at

Naval Air Station Dallas A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations ...

, it provided support to the

Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command The Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command (COMNAVMETOCCOM) or CNMOC, serves as the operational arm of the Naval Oceanography Program. Headquartered at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, CNMOC is an echelon three command reporting to ...

center on

Guam Guam ( ; ) is an island that is an Territories of the United States, organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. Guam's capital is Hagåtña, Guam, Hagåtña, and the most ...

. The unit was sent to Guam on January 13, 1991, four days before the start of

Operation Desert Storm Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...

, and stayed for thirty days to augment the regular component responsible for the Western Pacific to free it to concentrate on the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

. She retired from the USNR with the rank of

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

in 2006.

Civilian career

NOAA Chief Scientist

While she was still working on preparations for STS-45, Sullivan received a call from

Sylvia Earle Sylvia Alice Earle (born August 30, 1935) is an American marine biologist, oceanographer, explorer, author, and lecturer. She has been a National Geographic Explorer at Large (formerly Explorer in Residence) since 1998. Earle was the first fem ...

, the chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In 1981 Earle and Sullivan had been part of the first group of women admitted to

the Explorers Club The Explorers Club is an American-based international multidisciplinary professional society with the goal of promoting scientific exploration and field study. The club was founded in New York City in 1904 and has served as a meeting point for ex ...

. Earle was stepping down from the role at the NOAA, and asked Sullivan if she was interested in taking over. With the permission of her STS-45 mission commander,

Charles Bolden Charles Frank Bolden Jr. (born August 19, 1946) is a former Administrator of NASA, a retired United States Marine Corps Major General, and a former astronaut who flew on four Space Shuttle missions. He graduated from the United States Naval ...

, Sullivan flew to

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

, where she was interviewed by the Administrator of the NOAA, John A. Knauss. Her nomination was forwarded to the

US Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

for confirmation, and she arranged to be seconded from NASA to NOAA as acting chief scientist from August 17, 1992. Before she could be confirmed, President

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

lost the

1992 United States presidential election The 1992 United States presidential election was the United States presidential election, presidential election, held in the United States, on November 3, 1992. The Democratic Party (United States), Democratic ticket of governor of Arkansas B ...

and was succeeded by

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

, and the nomination was withdrawn. Sullivan still wanted the job, so she lobbied for it, enlisting the help of the outgoing

Secretary of Commerce The United States secretary of commerce (SecCom) is the head of the United States Department of Commerce. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to commerce. The secretary rep ...

,

Barbara Franklin Barbara Hackman Franklin (born March 19, 1940) is an American government official, corporate director, and business executive. She served as the 29th U.S. Secretary of Commerce from 1992 to 1993 to President George H. W. Bush, during which she ...

, and senators

Barbara Mikulski Barbara Ann Mikulski ( ; born July 20, 1936) is an American politician and social worker who served as a United States senator from Maryland from 1987 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, she also served i ...

and

Bill Nelson Clarence William Nelson II (born September 29, 1942) is an American politician, attorney, and former astronaut who served from 2001 to 2019 as a United States Senate, United States senator from Florida and from 2021 to 2025 as the Administrator ...

. The incoming Secretary of Commerce, Ronald H. Brown, forwarded her nomination to the Senate again in April, and she was confirmed on May 28, 1993. As chief scientist at NOAA, she oversaw a diverse portfolio which included ranging research into

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

, the use of satellites for oceanography, and

marine biodiversity Marine life, sea life or ocean life is the collective ecological communities that encompass all aquatic animals, plants, algae, fungi, protists, single-celled microorganisms and associated viruses living in the saline water of marine habitat ...

.

Career 1996 to 2011

Sullivan was president and CEO of the

COSI Columbus COSI (), officially the Center of Science and Industry, is a science museum and research center in Columbus, Ohio. COSI was opened to the public on 29 March 1964 and remained there for 35 years. In 1999, COSI was moved to a facility, designed ...

, an interactive science center in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

, from 1996 to 2006. From 2006 to 2011 she was Director for

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

's Battelle Center for Mathematics and Science Education Policy while remaining a volunteer science advisor to COSI. She was appointed as vice chair of the

National Science Board The National Science Board (NSB) of the United States establishes the policies of the National Science Foundation (NSF) within the framework of applicable national policies set forth by the President of the United States, president and the United ...

by President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

in 2004. In 2009 Sullivan was elected to a three-year term as the chair of the Section on General Interest in Science and Engineering for the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

.

Assistant Secretary of Commerce

In January 2011 President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

sent the Senate his nomination of Sullivan to be an Assistant Secretary of Commerce. Sullivan was first nominated in December 2010, but because the Senate did not approve her nomination before the session ended, the White House renewed the nomination. On May 4, 2011, Sullivan was confirmed by unanimous consent of the Senate and appointed by President Obama to serve as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction and Deputy Administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Sullivan became Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Acting NOAA Administrator on February 28, 2013, following the resignation of

Jane Lubchenco Jane Lubchenco (born December 4, 1947) is an American environmental scientist and marine ecologist who teaches and conducts research at Oregon State University. Her research interests include interactions between the environment and human well- ...

. President Obama nominated Sullivan to serve as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator on August 1, 2013, and she was confirmed by the Senate on March 6, 2014. Her term ended on January 20, 2017.

Positions since 2017

Sullivan was named the 2017 Charles A. Lindbergh Chair of Aerospace History, a competitive twelve-month fellowship at the

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States, dedicated to history of aviation, human flight and space exploration. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, ...

. During her residence in the museum, Sullivan's research focused on the Hubble Space Telescope. She has also served as a Senior Fellow at the

Potomac Institute for Policy Studies The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies is an independent, 501(c)(3), not-for-profit public policy research institute located in Arlington, Virginia. The institute was founded in , shortly after the Congressional Office of Technology Assessme ...

. Her book ''Handprints on Hubble: An Astronaut's Story of Invention'' was released from MIT Press in November 2019. It recounted her experience as part of the team that launched, rescued, repaired, and maintained the Hubble Space Telescope. In June 2020 Sullivan traveled on an expedition aboard the

Triton Submarines Triton Submarines is an American company that designs and manufactures submersibles for research, filming, deep-ocean exploration, and the superyacht and high-end tourism sectors. Triton is a bespoke manufacturer and, as of August 2023, fewer t ...

to the bottom of the

Challenger Deep The Challenger Deep is the List of submarine topographical features#List of oceanic trenches, deepest known point of the seabed of Earth, located in the western Pacific Ocean at the southern end of the Mariana Trench, in the ocean territory o ...

in the

Mariana Trench The Mariana Trench is an oceanic trench located in the western Pacific Ocean, about east of the Mariana Islands; it is the deep sea, deepest oceanic trench on Earth. It is crescent-shaped and measures about in length and in width. The maxi ...

, becoming the first woman and eighth person to reach the deepest known point in Earth's oceans, and the first person to travel both to Challenger Deep and into space. In November 2020 Sullivan was named a volunteer member of

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

's presidential transition Agency Review Team to support transition efforts related to the

Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government. It is responsible for gathering data for business ...

, and he appointed her to the

President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is a council, chartered (or re-chartered) in each administration with a broad mandate to advise the president of the United States on science and technology. The current PCAST w ...

in September 2021.

Awards and recognition

Sullivan's awards from NASA included the

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 ...

in 1984, 1990 and 1992; the

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 ...

in 1988 and 1991, the

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 ...

in 1992, and a Certificate of Appreciation in 1996. She received the Haley Space Flight Award in 1991, the Gold Medal of the

Society of Woman Geographers The Society of Woman Geographers was established in 1925 at a time when women were excluded from membership in most professional organizations, such as the Explorers Club, who would not admit women until 1981. It is based in Washington, D.C., and ...

in 1993, the Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a nonprofit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest-achieving people in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet one ano ...

in 1994, and the

Adler Planetarium The Adler Planetarium is a public museum in Chicago, Illinois, dedicated to astronomy and astrophysics. It was founded in 1930 by local businessman Max Adler (Sears), Max Adler. Located on the northeastern tip of Northerly Island on Lake Michigan ...

Women in Space Science Award in 2004. In 2014 Sullivan was named in the ''Time'' 100 list, an annual list of the world's most influential people.

John Glenn John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space and the first to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1 ...

wrote in her blurb:

Kathy is not just an ivory-tower scientist. She was part of NASA's first class of female astronauts, selected in 1978, and went on to fly three shuttle missions. She is the first American woman to walk in space and served aboard the mission that deployed the Hubble Space Telescope. That role in helping humanity look outward has not prevented her from looking homeward. The planet is suffering increasingly severe upheavals, at least partly a result of climate change—
droughts A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...
,
floods A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...
,
typhoons A typhoon is a tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere and which produces sustained hurricane-force winds of at least . This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, accounting for a ...
,
tornadoes A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...
. I believe my good friend Kathy is the right person for the right job at the right time.

Sullivan received honorary

Doctor of Science A Doctor of Science (; most commonly abbreviated DSc or ScD) is a science doctorate awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. Africa Algeria and Morocco In Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, all universities accredited by the s ...

degrees from

Willamette University Willamette University is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college with locations in Salem, Oregon, Salem and Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest college in the Western United ...

in 2013 in conjunction with her presentation of a commencement address, and from

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

in May 2015, for her "abundant contributions to science, education and the public good, and her ongoing commitment to improving the state of our planet for future generations". In September 2015 she presented the John H. Glenn Lecture in Space History Series at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Titled "Looking at Earth: An Astronaut's Journey", Sullivan discussed her life of exploration and discovery, what it is like to fulfill her childhood dreams, and how NOAA's study of our planet helps us understand today's environmental challenges. Sullivan was inducted into the

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 2004, elected to the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

in 2016, and the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 2017. In 2020 the American Association of Geographers named her Honorary Geographer. She was on the list of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's 100 Women announced on November 23, 2020. In September 2023, Sullivan was inducted into the

National Aviation Hall of Fame The National Aviation Hall of Fame (NAHF) is a museum, annual awards ceremony and learning and research center that was founded in 1962 as an Ohio non-profit corporation in Dayton, Ohio, United States, known as the "Birthplace of Aviation" with ...

in Dayton, Ohio.

Notes

References

* * * * *

External links

*
Kathy Sullivan's podcasts
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sullivan, Kathryn D. 1951 births 20th-century American geologists 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American geologists 21st-century American women scientists American astronaut-politicians American women geologists Articles containing video clips Dalhousie University alumni Female United States Navy officers Living people National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration personnel Obama administration personnel Ohio State University faculty People from Columbus, Ohio Scientists from Paterson, New Jersey People from Woodland Hills, Los Angeles Members of the Society of Woman Geographers Military personnel from Paterson, New Jersey Scientists from Los Angeles Smithsonian Institution people Space Shuttle program astronauts Spacewalkers United States Astronaut Hall of Fame inductees United States Navy captains United States Navy reservists United States Under Secretaries of Commerce University of California, Santa Cruz alumni William Howard Taft Charter High School alumni American women astronauts Women Divers Hall of Fame American women oceanographers American oceanographers National Aviation Hall of Fame inductees

Early life and education