Jemison, Mae Carol (1956-…), an American astronaut, engineer, and physician, was the first Black woman to travel in space. In September 1992, she made an eight-day flight on the spacecraft Endeavour. Aboard the spacecraft, Jemison conducted the first experiment that fertilized frog eggs in space. She also studied the loss of bone tissue experienced by people and other animals in orbiting spacecraft. Her research was aimed at determining how gravity affects the development of complex organisms.
Jemison was born on Oct. 17, 1956, in Decatur, Alabama, and moved to Chicago as a child. She earned a degree in chemical engineering from Stanford University in 1977 and a medical degree from Cornell University in 1981. From 1983 until 1985, she was a medical officer for the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Jemison joined the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) astronaut corps in 1987, after training for more than a year. During her flight aboard the space shuttle Endeavour’s Spacelab-J in 1992, she also conducted experiments on weightlessness and motion sickness on the other crew members and herself. Jemison resigned from the astronaut program in 1993.
In 1994, she founded the Jemison Group, Inc., in which she focused on improving healthcare in Africa and advancing technology in developing countries. She became the director of the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries at Dartmouth College. In addition, since leaving the astronaut program Jemison has become a strong advocate of STEM education, particularly for young women. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
In 2011, through a U.S. government agency called DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), Jemison helped found 100 Year Starship. 100 Year Starship is a joint project sponsored by DARPA and NASA. It promotes the capability of interstellar human travel—that is, travel beyond our solar system. The organization hopes to make such travel a reality.
