Space shuttle astronaut jemison
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Mae C. Jemison
Dr. Mae C. Jemison worked as a General Practitioner in Los Angeles, California, before becoming a Peace Corps Medical Officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia in West Africa. After returning to the United States, Dr. Jemison applied and was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate in 1987 and became the first African American woman in space.
Quick Facts
Assigned to STS-47, Jemison carried out experiments on the effects of space motion sickness, frog fertilization in space, and bone loss during spaceflight.
Jemison has a background in both engineering and medical research. As a science mission specialist on STS-47, she was a co-investigator on the bone cell research experiment flown on the mission.
Dr. Jemison received her BA in chemical engineering and African American studies from Stanford University, and her doctorate degree in medicine from Cornell University.
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Born in 1956, Mae Jemison received degrees in Chemical Engineering and African American Studies and went on to become a medical doctor and officer in the Peace Corps.
In 1983, after watching Sally Ride, Jemison decided to apply to the astronaut schema at NASA. On September 12, 1992, Jemison went into orbit aboard the space shuttle Endeavour as the first African American woman in space.
Jemison left NASA in 1993, continuing to work for the benefit of others as an educator, entrepreneur, and author.
“Sometimes people want to tell you to act or to be a certain way. Sometimes people want to limit you because of their own imaginations” Mae Jemison, "Mae Jemison: Coming In From Outer Space." Ebony, December 1992.
Childhood: Alabama to Chicago
Mae Carol Jemison was born in Decatur, Alabama on October 17, 1956. She spent her first three and a half years in the small Alabama town. Her mother, unhappy with job opportunities in the South, joined the Great Migration and move
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Looking Back: Astronaut Mae Jemison Suits Up For Launch
1 min read
NASA
Feb 18, 2016
Image Article
On Sept. 12, 1992, launch day of the STS-47 Spacelab-J mission on space shuttle Endeavour, NASA astronaut Mae Jemison waits as her kostym technician, Sharon McDougle, performs a unpressurized and pressurized leak kvitto on her spacesuit at the Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center. Dr. Jemison was the science mission expert on the eight-day joint uppdrag with Japan’s space agency, which included 24 materials science and 20 life sciences experiments. She was the first African-American woman to fly in space. McDougle said of her role as Dr. Jemison’s suit tech, “I just wanted it to be a good experience for her. I’m sure it was probably a little scary for her being the first African-American woman to go into space, so I wanted to do my part in making it special for her too. And for me, because I was excited about being a part of