Kathryn C. Thornton
Encyclopedia
Kathryn Ryan Cordell Thornton (Ph.D.) (born August 17, 1952 in Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...

) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 scientist and a former NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....

 with over 975 hours in space, including 21 hours of extravehicular activity. She is currently the Associate Dean for Graduate Programs in the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...

 School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Personal Life

Thornton is married to Stephen T. Thornton, Ph.D., of Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Oak Ridge is a city in Anderson and Roane counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about west of Knoxville. Oak Ridge's population was 27,387 at the 2000 census...

. She has two stepsons, Kenneth and Michael Thornton, and three daughters, Carol Hood, Laura Thornton and Susan Thornton. In her spare time she enjoys skiing and Scuba diving. Both of her biological parents, Mr. William C. Cordell and Mrs. Elizabeth Cordell, are deceased while her adoptive father lives in Smithville, Texas. Her adoptive mother is deceased.

Education and organizations

Kathyrn Thornton graduated from Sidney Lanier High School Lanier High School (Montgomery, Alabama)
Lanier High School (Montgomery, Alabama)
Sidney Lanier High School is a public high school located in Montgomery, Alabama, United States.-History:Established originally in 1910 on the southern outskirts of downtown Montgomery, Alabama, this school was named for a well-known Southern poet, Sidney Lanier, who resided in Montgomery during...

  in 1970. She later received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Auburn University
Auburn University
Auburn University is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 25,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 7, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts...

 in 1974. In 1977 she went on to receive a Master of Science degree in Physics. Finally she completed a Doctorate of Philosophy in Physics from the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...

 in 1979.

Thornton is also a member of the American Physical Society
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...

, the American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...

, and the following honour societies: Sigma Pi Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi, and Sigma Xi.

Pre-NASA career

After Dr. Thornton earned her Ph.D. at the University of Virginia in 1979, she was awarded a NATO Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue her research at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics
Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics
The Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik is aresearch institute in Heidelberg, Germany.The institute is one of the 80 institutes of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft , an independent, non-profit research organization. The Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics has been founded in 1958 under the...

 in Heidelberg, Germany. In 1980, she returned to Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...

, where she was employed as a physicist at the U.S. Army Foreign Science and Technology Center.

NASA career

Selected by NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 in May 1984, Dr. Thornton became an astronaut in July 1985. Her technical assignments have included flight software verification in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL), serving as a team member of the Vehicle Integration Test Team (VITT) at Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA installation that has been the launch site for every United States human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on hiatus, KSC continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for America's civilian space program...

, and as a spacecraft communicator (CAPCOM). A veteran of three space flights, Dr. Thornton flew on STS-33
STS-33
-Crew notes:S. David Griggs, the originally scheduled pilot for STS-33, died in a plane crash in June 1989, five months prior to the scheduled launch, and was replaced by John E...

 in 1989, STS-49
STS-49
-Mission parameters:*Mass:**Orbiter landing with payload: **Payload: *Perigee: *Apogee: *Inclination: 28.35°*Period: 90.6 min-Space walks:* Thuot and Hieb – EVA 1*EVA 1 Start: 10 May 1992 – 20:40 UTC...

 in 1992, and STS-61
STS-61
STS-61 was the first Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, and the fifth flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. The mission launched on 2 December 1993 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission restored the spaceborne observatory's vision, marred by spherical aberration, with the...

 in 1993. She has logged over 975 hours in space, including more than 21 hours of extravehicular activity (EVA).

Dr. Thornton was a mission specialist
Mission Specialist
A Mission Specialist is a position held by certain NASA astronauts during Space Shuttle missions. A Mission Specialist is assigned to a limited field of the mission, such as for medical experiments or technical quests....

 on the crew of STS-33 which launched at night from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on November 22, 1989, aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery
Space Shuttle Discovery
Space Shuttle Discovery is one of the retired orbiters of the Space Shuttle program of NASA, the space agency of the United States, and was operational from its maiden flight, STS-41-D on August 30, 1984, until its final landing during STS-133 on March 9, 2011...

. The mission carried Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...

 payloads and other secondary payloads. After 79 orbits of the Earth, this five-day mission concluded on November 27, 1989, at Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located on the border of Kern County, Los Angeles County, and San Bernardino County, California, in the Antelope Valley. It is southwest of the central business district of North Edwards, California and due east of Rosamond.It is named in...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.

On her second flight, Dr. Thornton served on the crew of STS-49, May 7–16, 1992, on board the maiden flight of the new Space Shuttle Endeavour
Space Shuttle Endeavour
Space Shuttle Endeavour is one of the retired orbiters of the Space Shuttle program of NASA, the space agency of the United States. Endeavour was the fifth and final spaceworthy NASA space shuttle to be built, constructed as a replacement for Challenger...

. During the mission the crew conducted the initial test flight of Endeavour, performed a record four EVA's (space walks) to retrieve, repair and deploy the International Telecommunications Satellite (INTELSAT
Intelsat
Intelsat, Ltd. is a communications satellite services provider.Originally formed as International Telecommunications Satellite Organization , it was—from 1964 to 2001—an intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communications satellites providing international broadcast...

), and to demonstrate and evaluate numerous EVA tasks to be used for the assembly of Space Station Freedom
Space Station Freedom
Space Station Freedom was a NASA project to construct a permanently manned Earth-orbiting space station in the 1980s. Although approved by then-president Ronald Reagan and announced in the 1984 State of the Union Address, Freedom was never constructed or completed as originally designed, and after...

. Dr. Thornton was one of two EVA crew members who evaluated Space Station assembly techniques on the fourth EVA. STS-49 logged 213 hours in space and 141 Earth orbits prior to landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

On her third flight, Dr. Thornton was a mission specialist EVA crew member aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on the STS-61 Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...

 (HST) servicing and repair mission. STS-61 launched at night from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on December 2, 1993. During the 11-day flight, the HST was captured and restored to full capacity through a record five space walks by four astronauts, including Dr. Thornton. After having travelled 4,433,772 miles in 163 orbits of the Earth, the crew of Endeavour returned to a night landing at the Kennedy Space Center on December 13, 1993. Then, after Expedition 14
Expedition 14
Expedition 14 was the 14th expedition to the International Space Station . Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 18 September 2006, 04:09 UTC, aboard Soyuz TMA-9. They joined Thomas Reiter, who had arrived at the ISS on 6 July 2006...

, Sunita Williams
Sunita Williams
Sunita Williams is a United States Naval officer and a NASA astronaut. She was assigned to the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 14 and then joined Expedition 15...

 surpassed her for woman with the most spacewalks.

From October 20 to November 5, 1995, Dr. Thornton served aboard Space Shuttle Columbia
Space Shuttle Columbia
Space Shuttle Columbia was the first spaceworthy Space Shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. First launched on the STS-1 mission, the first of the Space Shuttle program, it completed 27 missions before being destroyed during re-entry on February 1, 2003 near the end of its 28th, STS-107. All seven crew...

 on STS-73, as the payload commander of the second United States Microgravity Laboratory mission. The mission focused on materials science, biotechnology, combustion science, the physics of fluids, and numerous scientific experiments housed in the pressurized Spacelab module. In completing her fourth space flight, Dr. Thornton orbited the Earth 256 times, traveled over 6 million miles, and logged a total of 15 days, 21 hours, 52 minutes and 21 seconds in space.

Dr. Thornton left NASA on August 1, 1996, to join the faculty of the University of Virginia School of Engineering. She also serves as the director of UVA's Center for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Education.
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