Sullivan, Kathryn (1951-…), is an American geologist and former astronaut. She was the first American woman to walk in space. Sullivan completed three space shuttle missions for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Sullivan is also an accomplished ocean explorer.
Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan was born on Oct. 3, 1951, in Paterson, in northern New Jersey. She earned her bachelor of science degree in Earth sciences from the University of California in Santa Cruz in 1973. Sullivan continued her studies at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she earned her doctorate degree in geology in 1978. Before she was selected by NASA for astronaut training, she worked as an oceanographer. An oceanographer is a scientist that studies the ocean. She studied fault lines off the coast of California as well as the MidAtlantic Ridge and the Newfoundland Basin.
As an astronaut, Sullivan completed missions in 1984, 1990, and 1992. On the space shuttle Challenger in 1984, she successfully refueled a satellite, becoming the first American woman to walk in space. In 1990, Sullivan and her crewmates placed the Hubble Space Telescope in its orbit. The Hubble Space Telescope is a powerful orbiting telescope that provides sharper images of heavenly bodies than do many other telescopes. On a Spacelab mission in 1992, Sullivan measured properties of Earth’s atmosphere. The Spacelab was a laboratory designed for use aboard the shuttle by the European Space Agency (ESA). Over her three missions, Sullivan logged over 532 hours—about 3 weeks—in space.
Sullivan retired from NASA in 1992. In 1993, she began the position of chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). From 1996 to 2006, Sullivan was the president and CEO of the Center of Science & Industry (COSI) in Columbus, Ohio. She also served as a director at Ohio State University. In 2011, Sullivan returned to NOAA.
In 2020, Sullivan dove to the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the ocean, aboard a submersible (underwater craft) launched from the ship DSSV Pressure Drop. At the deep, in the Mariana Trench southwest of Guam, the ocean floor is about 36,070 feet (10,994 meters) below the ocean surface. Sullivan became the first woman to reach the Challenger Deep and the first person to visit both space and the deepest point on Earth. She has authored a memoir, Handprints on Hubble: An Astronaut’s Story of Invention (2019).
