A few light years away, a star shines a little brighter. This is good: space was Mary Louise Cleave’s specialty. The American astronaut, the first woman to return to a space shuttle after the Challenger accident in 1986, died on Monday, NASA announced. “I am sad that we have lost a pioneer, Dr. Mary Cleave, astronaut, veteran of two space flights and first woman to lead the Science Mission Directorate as associate administrator,” said the former astronaut. Robert Cabana in a press release.
Born in New York State, graduated with a master’s degree in microbial ecology from Utah State University in 1975, then a doctorate in civil and environmental engineering in 1979, Mary Cleave joined NASA from 1980. She participated in her first mission in space in November 1985, aboard the shuttle Atlantis, thus becoming the tenth woman to travel in space.
Two missions in space
In May 1989, she became the first woman to return to a space shuttle since the Challenger accident in 1986. Still on board Atlantis, she took part in a four-day flight to launch the Magellan probe, which will map 95 % of the surface of Venus from August 1990. Mary Cleave left NASA in February 2007.
In 2002, she told NASA’s Oral History Project that she had always been passionate about flying planes and had obtained her pilot’s license before her driving license. “For me, space flight was great, but it was the cherry on top of being able to fly in big planes,” she said. “Mary was a force of nature with a passion for science and exploration, and attentive to our planet. We will miss her,” Robert Cabana paid tribute to her.