With James Kelly in Destiny during STS-114. (Aug 2005)

Captain Lawrence inspects Space Shuttle tiles (Oct 2003)

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Wendy Boston

Wendy Barrien Lawrence is a Commander in the US Navy, a helicopter pilot, an engineer, and a NASA astronaut. She is the first female graduate of the US Naval Academy to fly in space and she has also visited the Russian Space Station Mir. more...

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She was a mission specialist on STS-114, the first Shuttle flight since the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

Personal data

Born July 2, 1959, in Jacksonville, Florida. She enjoys running, rowing, and triathlons. CAPT Lawrence is single. She is the daughter and the grand-daughter of US Navy pilots. Her father was vice admiral William P. Lawrence.

Education

1977: Graduated from Fort Hunt High School, Alexandria, Virginia; 1981: Received a bachelor of science degree in ocean engineering from United States Naval Academy; 1988: Received a master of science degree in ocean engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI);

Organizations

Phi Kappa Phi; Association of Naval Aviation; Women Military Aviators; Naval Helicopter Association;

Special honors

Awarded the:

Defense Superior Service Medal; Defense Meritorious Service Medal; NASA Space Flight Medal; Navy Commendation Medal; Navy Achievement Medal; Recipient of the National Navy League’s Captain Winifred Collins Award for inspirational leadership (1986).;

Experience

Lawrence graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1981. A distinguished flight school graduate, she was designated as a naval aviator in July 1982. Lawrence has more than 1,500 hours flight time in six different types of helicopters and has made more than 800 shipboard landings. While stationed at Helicopter Combat Support Squadron SIX (HC-6), she was one of the first two female helicopter pilots to make a long deployment to the Indian Ocean as part of a carrier battle group. After completion of a master’s degree program at MIT and WHOI in 1988, she was assigned to Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light THIRTY (HSL-30) as officer-in-charge of Detachment ALFA. In October 1990, Lawrence reported to the U.S. Naval Academy where she served as a physics instructor and the novice women’s crew coach.

NASA experience

Selected by NASA in March 1992, Lawrence reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1992. She completed one year of training and is qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. To date, her technical assignments within the Astronaut Office have included flight software verification in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL), Astronaut Office Assistant Training Officer, and Astronaut Office representative for Space Station training and crew support. She flew as the ascent/entry flight engineer and blue shift orbit pilot on STS-67 (March 2-18, 1995). She next served as Director of Operations for NASA at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, with responsibility for the coordination and implementation of mission operations activities in the Moscow region for the joint U.S./Russian Shuttle/Mir program. In September 1996 she began training as a backup crew member for a 4-month mission on the Russian Space Station Mir. Because of her knowledge and experience with Mir systems and with crew transfer logistics for the Mir, she flew on STS-86 (September 25 to October 6, 1997) and STS-91 (June 2-12, 1998). A veteran of four space flights, she has logged over 1200 hours in space. Lawrence was a Mission Specialist on the crew of STS-114. She was in charge of the transfer of supplies and equipment and operated the Space Station robotic arm on the Return To Flight mission during which the crew tested and evaluated new procedures for the inspection and repair of the Shuttle Thermal Protection System. The mission launched on July 26, 2005 and landed on August 9, 2005.