Shannon Lucid

Lucid is one of the most prominent women astronauts in the world. In 1996 she spent six months aboard the Russian Space Station Mir as a board engineer. A veteran of five space flights, she holds the record (223 days) for the most flight hours in orbit by any woman and the record for the most flight hours in orbit by any non-Russian. She was the first woman to receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Lucid earned her BS in chemistry in 1963, her MS in philosophy in 1970, and her Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1973 from the University of Oklahoma. She joined NASA in 1978 and became an astronaut in 1979.