The Nineties in America - Salem Press (2009)

and became the first American to conduct a
spacewalk on Mir. Her return was scheduled for July
31 but was delayed nearly two months because of
mechanical and weather problems with shuttle
launches. She finally returned to Kennedy Space
Center aboardAtlantison September 26, 1996, after
traveling more than 75 million miles in space.

Impact Shannon Lucid’s career in space demon-
strated that female astronauts could equal or surpass
their male counterparts. When no one expressed in-
terest in an extended trip on the sparse Mir space sta-
tion, she volunteered and established several space
records. After six months of weightlessness, she sur-
prised experts by walking on her own from the space
shuttle to the medical transporter. Over the next
three years, she was NASA’s most important source
of data for the effects of space on the human body. In

December of 1996, she became the tenth astronaut

to receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor,

and in February of 1997 she won the Free Spirit

Award from the Freedom Forum.

Further Reading

Bredeson, Carmen.Shannon Lucid: Space Ambassador.

Brookfield, Conn.: Millbrook Press, 1998.

Lucid, Shannon W. “Six Months on Mir.”Scientific

American, May, 1998, pp. 46-55.

Shayler, David, and Ian Moule.Women in Space: Fol-

lowing Valentina. New York: Springer, 2005.

Joseph L. Spradley

See also Astronomy; Bondar, Roberta; Glenn,

John; Science and technology; Space exploration;

Space shuttle program; Women in the workforce.

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Lucid, Shannon The Nineties in America