Janice E. Voss

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Janice Voss
NASA astronaut
Time in space
49d 3h 49m
SelectionNASA Group 13 (1990)
MissionsSTS-57
STS-63
STS-83
STS-94
STS-99
Mission insignia

Janice Elaine Voss (October 8, 1956 – February 6, 2012) was an American

MIT.[1] She flew in space five times, jointly holding the record for American women.[2] Voss died in Arizona on February 6, 2012, from breast cancer.[3][4][5]

Education

Voss was born in South Bend, Indiana in 1956 and grew up in Rockford, Illinois where she received her kindergarten-6th grade education from Maud E. Johnson Elementary School and Guilford Center School.

damping, and mode shapes for the International Space Station.[10]

Inspiration

Voss has cited Madeleine L'Engle's 1962 novel A Wrinkle in Time as one of her primary inspirations for becoming an astronaut.[11] The book tells the story of a young girl who must travel through time to save her father. In the book, the young girl's mother is a Nobel Prize winning biologist. Voss claims that the powerful female roles did not strike her as unusual, but were the norms she accepted in life.[11] Voss flew a copy of A Wrinkle in Time onboard STS-94 and mailed it to Madeleine L'Engle.[11]

Voss, holding a camera, cable, and batteries, floats through the spacelab tunnel adapter on her way to the SPACEHAB module aboard Endeavour.

Career

Voss first became involved with

Advanced Communications Technology Satellite in September 1993.[1]

In 1990, Voss was selected by

Mir space station on STS-63, which flew around the station testing communications and in-flight maneuvers for later missions, but never actually docked.[13] As an STS-99 crew member on the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, she and her fellow crew members worked continuously in shifts to produce what was at the time the most accurate digital topographic map of the Earth.[3] Voss logged over 49 days in space, traveled 18.8 million miles in 779 Earth orbits, and all of her missions included at least one other woman.[1][14]

From October 2004 to November 2007, she was the Science Director for NASA's

extrasolar planets in nearby planetary systems. It was launched in March 2009 and operated through October 2018.[15] At the Astronaut Office Station Branch, she served as the Payloads Lead. She also worked for Orbital Sciences Corporation in flight operations support.[1]

Honors and dedication

The cornerstone of the Visiting Our Solar System interactive exhibit in Discovery Park is the design of the Sun, which is 45 feet in diameter. Surrounding the VOSS Sun are the planets of the Solar System, set into a series of curved, 6-foot-high walls. Jeff Laramore and Tom Fansler of Smock Fansler Corp. of Indianapolis were the designers of the $1.5 million project. (Purdue University photo/Mark Simons)

Voss received several honors in her lifetime:

  • National Science Foundation Fellowship; 1976[1]
  • Howard Hughes Fellowship; 1981[1]
  • Zonta Amelia Earhart Fellowship; 1982[1]
  • Draper Fellow; 1983[10]
  • NASA spaceflight medal; 1993, 1995[1]

The

Cygnus CRS Orb-2 spacecraft was named SS Janice Voss in her honor.[16]

The VOSS Model is a scaled model of the Solar System, dedicated to Janice Voss, located at Purdue University's Discovery Park in West Lafayette, Indiana.[17]

References

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
.

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r "Biographical Data" (PDF). NASA. March 2012. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
  2. ^ "Our View: 'Job well done' in space ends after 30 eventful years". Rockford Register Star. Rockford, Illinois. July 11, 2011. Archived from the original on February 8, 2012.
  3. ^ a b "NASA astronaut Janice Voss dies, flew on five space shuttle missions". Collect Space. February 7, 2012. Retrieved February 7, 2012.
  4. msnbc.com. Archived from the original
    on May 5, 2012. Retrieved February 7, 2012.
  5. ^ "Former astronaut Janice Voss dies in AZ at age 55". KTAR.com. Archived from the original on February 21, 2014. Retrieved February 8, 2012.
  6. ^ "Janice Voss, Rockford Astronaut". Discovery Center Museum. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
  7. ^ a b c d "Janice E. Voss". Purdue Engineering. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
  8. ^ "1976 Debris". Libraries and School of Information Studies, Purdue University. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
  9. ^ "Draper's Fifth NASA Astronaut Prepares for International Space Station". Draper. April 5, 2017. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
  10. ^ a b c Tylko, John (March 8, 2000). "Alumna, Draper, faculty involved in shuttle radar mission". MIT News. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
  11. ^ a b c Lyden, Jacki (September 9, 2007). "L'Engle's Fiction Inspired Real Science". NPR. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
  12. ^ "Spacefacts biography of Janice E. Voss". Spacefacts.de. Retrieved February 8, 2012.
  13. ^ "STS-63 Discovery". spacefacts.de. March 27, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
  14. ^ "Women in Space". History.nasa.gov. Retrieved February 8, 2012.
  15. ^ "NASA's First Planet Hunter, the Kepler Space Telescope: 2009-2018". NASA. October 30, 2018. Archived from the original on June 3, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
  16. ^ Matt Bradwell (August 15, 2014). "The ISS just dumped 3,300 lbs of space trash to burn up in Earth's atmosphere". UPI. SpaceDaily.
  17. ^ "The VOSS Model – Purdue University".

External links

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