Nancy J. Currie, Ph.D. served in the U.S. Army for 23 years and achieved the rank of Colonel prior to her retirement in 2005. As a Master Army Aviator and instructor pilot, she served in numerous leadership positions flying a variety of rotary wing and fixed wing aircraft, logging over 4000 hours.
Col. Currie was assigned to NASA Johnson Space Center in 1987 as a flight simulation engineer. Was selected to be an astronaut in 1990 and completed the Astronaut Candidate Training Program in 1991. She was the first female Army officer to become an astronaut. A veteran of four space shuttle missions, she has accrued 1,000 hours in space.
Her space flight experience:
- STS-57 “Endeavor” (1993) included retrieval of the European Retrievable Carrier Satellite, orbiting the earth 155 times and covered 4.1 million miles.
- STS-70 “Discovery” (1995) included deployment of the final NASA Tracking and Data Recovery Satellite, orbiting the earth 143 times and covered 3.7 million miles.
- STS-88 “Endeavor” (1998) the first International Space Station assembly mission, orbiting the earth 185 times, and covered 4.7 million miles.
- STS-109 “Columbia” (2000) the fourth Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, orbiting the earth165 times and traveled 3.9 million miles.
Dr. Currie has also served in a variety of senior management positions and is currently the Chief Engineer for the NASA Engineering and Safety Center.
