Coleman
Coleman
Credit - www.spacefacts.de
Dr Catherine (Cady) Grace Coleman American Mission Specialist Astronaut. Born 14 December 1960. US Air Force engineer.

Personal: Female, Married. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. PhD US Air Force US Air Force

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: NASA Group 14 - 1992. Active Entered space service: 31 March 1992. Number of Flights: 2.00. Total Time: 20.86 days.

NASA Official Biography

NAME: Catherine G. "Cady" Coleman, Ph.D. (Major, USAF)
NASA Astronaut

PERSONAL DATA:
Born December 14, 1960, in Charleston, South Carolina. Enjoys flying, scuba diving, sports, music. As an undergraduate, she competed in intercollegiate athletics on MIT's crew team. Her father, James J. Coleman, resides in Vancouver, Washington. Her mother, Ann L. Doty, resides in Westerly, Rhode Island.

EDUCATION:
Graduated from W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, Virginia, in 1978; received a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983, and a doctorate in polymer science and engineering from the University of Massachusetts in 1991.

ORGANIZATIONS:
Member of the American Chemical Society, the Society for Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), the American Association of University Women, and the International Womens' Air and Space Museum.

EXPERIENCE:
Coleman was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the Air Force in 1983 and began graduate work at the University of Massachusetts. Her research focused on polymer synthesis using the olefin metathesis reaction, and polymer surface modification. In 1988, Coleman entered active duty and was assigned to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. As a research chemist at the Materials Directorate of the Wright Laboratory, she synthesized model compounds to investigate the use of organic polymers for third-order nonlinear optical applications such as advanced computers and data storage. Coleman also acted as a surface analysis consultant for the Long Duration Exposure Facility (launched from STS 41-C in 1984 and retrieved during STS-32 in 1990). In addition to assigned duties, Coleman was a volunteer test subject for the centrifuge program at the Crew Systems Directorate of the Armstrong Aeromedical Laboratory. She set several endurance and tolerance records during her participation in physiological and new equipment studies.

NASA EXPERIENCE:
Coleman was selected by NASA in March 1992 and reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1992. Initially assigned to the Astronaut Office Mission Support Branch and detailed to flight software verification in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory, Coleman subsequently served as the special assistant to the Center Director, Johnson Space Center. She trained as STS-83 backup mission specialist to Dr. Don Thomas when he suffered a broken right ankle following the conclusion of a routine training exercise. Presently, Coleman is assigned to the Astronaut Office Payloads and Habitability Branch. She works with experiment designers to insure that payloads can be operated successfully in the microgravity environment of low earth orbit, and is the lead astronaut for long term space flight habitability issues, such as accoustics and living accommodations aboard the International Space Station.

From October 20 to November 5, 1995, Coleman served as a mission specialist aboard Space Shuttle Columbia on STS-73, the second United States Microgravity Laboratory mission. The mission focused on materials science, biotechnology, combustion science, the physics of fluids, and numerous scientific experiments housed in the pressurized Spacelab module. In completing her first space flight, Coleman orbited the Earth 256 times, traveled over 6 million miles, and logged a total of 15 days, 21 hours, 52 minutes and 21 seconds in space.

MARCH 1997

Coleman Spaceflight Log

  • 20 October 1995 Flight: STS-73. Flight Up: STS-73. Flight Back: STS-73. Flight Time: 15.91 days.
  • 23 July 1999 Flight: STS-93. Flight Up: STS-93. Flight Back: STS-93. Flight Time: 4.95 days.
Coleman Chronology

5 December 1992 - NASA Astronaut Training Group 14 selected.. The group was selected to provide pilot, engineer, and scientist astronauts for space shuttle flights.. Qualifications: Pilots: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics. Advanced degree desirable. At least 1,000 flight-hours of pilot-in-command time. Flight test experience desirable. Excellent health. Vision minimum 20/50 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20 vision; maximum sitting blood pressure 140/90. Height between 163 and 193 cm.

Mission Specialists: Bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics and minimum three years of related experience or an advanced degree. Vision minimum 20/150 uncorrected, correctable to 20/20. Maximum sitting blood pressure of 140/90. Height between 150 and 193 cm.. Four pilots and 15 mission specialists, nine civilians and ten military. Chosen from 2054 applicants, 87 of which screened in December 1991/January 1992. Five additional international astronauts.

20 October 1995 - STS-73. Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight: STS-73. Carried USML-2 for microgravity experiments (attached to Columbia). Payloads: United States Microgravity Laboratory (USML) 2, Orbital Acceleration Research Experiment (OARE).
5 November 1995 - Landing of STS-73. Assignment: Return Crew. Flight: STS-73. STS-73 landed at 11:46 GMT.
4 April 1997 - STS-83. Assignment: Backup Crew. Flight: STS-83. The launch of STS-83, the first Microgravity Science Laboratory (MSL-1) mission, was postponed for a day to replace some insulation around a water coolant line in Columbia's payload bay. Liftoff was further delayed 20 minutes due to anomalous oxygen readings in the orbiter's payload bay. STS-83 was cut short due to a problem with one of the three fuel cells that provide electricity and water to Columbia (flight rules required that all three must be operating). At 14:30 GMT on April 6 the crew were ordered to begin a Minimum Duration Flight (MDF). On April 8 the OMS engines ignited at 17:30 GMT for the deorbit burn, and Columbia landed on Runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center at 18:33 GMT.

With delays in International Space Station construction leaving ample room in the shuttle schedule, NASA made the unique decision to leave the equipment installed in Columbia and refly this mission with the same crew later in 1997 as STS-94.

23 July 1999 - STS-93. Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight: STS-93. STS-93 was first rolled out to pad 39B on June 7 1999. The Chandra/IUS-27 vehicle was placed in the payload canister on June 19. The first launch attempt was on July 20, but controllers aborted the launch at T-6 seconds, just before main engine ignition, due to a data spike in hydrogen pressure data. This was determined to be due to a faulty sensor and a second attempt was on July 22. A lightning storm prevented launch during the 46 minute window, and the launch was again scrubbed. Finally the vehicle lifted off the pad on July 23, but five seconds after launch a short in an electrical bus brought down two of the three main engine controllers. Backup controllers took over, but a further failure on the backup controller bus would have resulted in engine shutdown and the first ever attempt at an RTLS (Return To Launch Site) abort. To further complicate matters engine 3 (SSME 2019) had a hydrogen leak throughout the ascent, causing the engine to run hot. Controllers sweated as temperatures neared redline. The hot engine’s controller compensated as programmed by using additional liquid oxygen propellant. The final result was that the shuttle ran out of gas - main engine cut-off (MECO) was at 04:39 GMT, putting Columbia into a 78 km x 276 km x 28.5 degree transfer orbit. Columbia was 1,700 kg short of oxygen propellant and 5 meters/sec slower than planned. The OMS-2 engine burn at 05:12 GMT circularised the orbit 10 km lower than planned.

The orbiter payload bay contained only the Chandra spacecraft, the IUS, and the IUS tilt tableTthe following payloads were carried in the shuttle’s cabin: STL-B (Space Tissue Loss), CCM (Cell culture module), SAREX-II (Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment), EarthKam, PGIM (Plant Growth Investigations in Microgravity), CGBA (Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus), MEMS (Micro-electric Mechanical System), and BRIC (Biological Research in Canisters) and SWUIS (the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System, an 0.18-m UV telescope to be used for airglow and planetary observations); GOSAMR (the Gelation of Sols: Applied Microgravity Research experiment) and LFSAH, the Lightweight Flexible Solar Array Hinge. MSX and SIMPLEX experiments were also to be carried out.

Chandra/IUS-27 was deployed from Columbia at 11:47 GMT July 23. Flight duration was limited; this was the heaviest shuttle (122,534 kg) and heaviest payload (19,736 kg) to that date. Columbia landed at 03:20 GMT on July 28 on runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center. Post-flight inspection found the presence of holes in the cooling lines on the nozzle of SSME 2019 (engine 3) which caused a hydrogen leak. A loose repair pin in the engine broke free and caused the failure. The cause of the short was found to be chaffed wiring inside the shuttle. The entire fleet was grounded for inspection and replacement of wiring as necessary.

23 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 01. Flight: STS-93. The Space Shuttle Columbia blasted off late Thursday night (early Friday morning, Eastern time) to carry five astronauts to orbit for the long-awaited deployment of Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which will unveil previously invisible mysteries of the universe.

After two previous postponements, Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeff Ashby and ...more...

23 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 03. Flight: STS-93. Chandra was deployed from Columbia a little more than seven hours into the flight at 6:47 a.m. CDT. Thanks to a pair of burns by its inertial upper stage (IUS), the third of NASA's four great observatories is now on its way to an elliptical orbit that will support five years of observations into the X-ray mysteries of the universe.

"We were extremely confident in the IUS system in placing Chandra in it's orbit," ...more...

24 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 04. Flight: STS-93. Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Cady Coleman, Steve Hawley and Michel Tognini worked on experiments involving everything from astronomy to biomedicine to plant growth as the shuttle continued to orbit the Earth every 90 minutes in excellent shape.

Hawley, the resident astronomer on board, used the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging ...more...

24 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 05. Flight: STS-93. Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Cady Coleman, Steve Hawley and Michel Tognini were awakened at 5:31 p.m. CDT with the song "Brave New Girls," performed by Teresa.

Hawley, the resident astronomer of the STS-93 crew, will continue his work with ...more...

25 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 07. Flight: STS-93. The five astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia began their fourth flight day at 4:31 p.m. CDT, preparing to make additional celestial observations through the shuttle's windows and continue work with a variety of experiments.

The day started off with a wake-up call sent up in honor of Pilot Jeff Ashby. It ...more...

25 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 06. Flight: STS-93. Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Cady Coleman, Steve Hawley and Michel Tognini conducted experiments ranging from astronomical observations with an ultraviolet telescope to cell culture studies. Investigations also included testing new materials which may one day be used to fabricate sturdier solar arrays.

Hawley collected additional data for investigators from the Southwest Ultraviolet ...more...

26 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 08. Flight: STS-93. Columbia's astronauts entered the homestretch of their mission this morning, conducting additional experiments in the Shuttle's middeck area as they began preparations for their scheduled return to Earth late Tuesday night.

Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Cady Coleman, ...more...

26 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 09. Flight: STS-93. Columbia's crew began packing up experiments today and preparing to return to Earth tomorrow with a touchdown planned on the Kennedy Space Center's shuttle runway in Florida at 10:20 p.m. CDT.

Commander Eileen Collins and Pilot Jeff Ashby checked out the shuttle's cockpit ...more...

27 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 12. Flight: STS-93. Columbia's astronauts glided to a smooth landing tonight at the Kennedy Space Center, wrapping up their five-day mission to deploy the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

Commander Eileen Collins flew Columbia to a textbook touchdown at 10:20 p.m. Central ...more...

27 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 11. Flight: STS-93. Columbia's astronauts made final preparations Tuesday evening to come home after a successful five-day flight. Commander Eileen Collins, Pilot Jeff Ashby and Mission Specialists Cady Coleman, Steve Hawley and Michel Tognini were awakened at 2:31 p.m. CDT Tuesday to "A Little Traveling Music" by Barry Manilow, requested by Hawley's wife Eileen, and "The Air Force Song," played for Collins and Coleman.

The first major task will be the closing of Columbia's cargo bay doors at about ...more...

27 July 1999 - STS-93 Mission Status Report # 10. Flight: STS-93. Columbia's astronauts tested their ship's systems and packed up their gear, ready for a nighttime homecoming late tonight at the Kennedy Space Center to wrap up their five-day mission.

With the Chandra X-Ray Observatory undergoing what so far has been a flawless checkout ...more...

28 July 1999 - Landing of STS-93. Assignment: Return Crew. Flight: STS-93. STS-93 landed at 03:17 GMT.
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