Millie Hughes-Fulford

Millie Hughes-Fulford, first female payload specialist in space, dies, CollectSpace

"The first American woman to launch into space who was not a professional astronaut but a working scientist, Millie Hughes-Fulford has died at the age of 75. Hughes-Fulford's death was confirmed by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF) on Thursday (Feb. 4)."

Millie Hughes-Fulford, Wikipedia

"Selected as a payload specialist by NASA in January 1983, Hughes-Fulford flew in June 1991 aboard STS-40 Spacelab Life Sciences (SLS 1), the first Spacelab mission dedicated to biomedical studies. The SLS-1 mission flew over 3.2 million miles in 146 orbits and its crew completed over 18 experiments during a nine-day period, bringing back more medical data than any previous NASA flight."

Keith's note: I am heartbroken over this. I first met Millie when I started at NASA in the mid-1980s. I was supporting Spacelab 4 which eventually became SLS-1 and flew on STS-40. Our paths regularly interacted over the past 35 years. Throughout her life she was NASA's biggest fan and contributed a steady stream of space life science research while mentoring young researchers. Millie was a cell/molecular biologist and was the first female payload specialist to fly on a Shuttle mission. Kate Rubins, who is now in orbit, is the modern day Millie. It would be most appropriate for Kate to say something about Millie from orbit - especially since they are working with genomic sequencing and with the VEGGIE unit which was dedicated to Millie's mentors Thora Halstead and Ken Souza.

Ad Astra Millie.

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