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Judith Resnik

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Judith Arlene Resnik
File:Judith Resnik.jpg
Born(1949-04-05)April 5, 1949
Akron, Ohio
StatusKilled during mission
DiedJanuary 28, 1986(1986-01-28) (aged 36)
Cape Canaveral, Florida
NationalityAmerican
OccupationEngineer
AwardsCongressional Space Medal of Honor
Space career
NASA astronaut
Time in space
6d 00h 56m
Selection1978 NASA Group
MissionsSTS-41-D, STS-51-L
Mission insignia

Judith Arlene Resnik (April 5, 1949 – January 28, 1986) was an American engineer and a NASA astronaut who died when the Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed during the launch of mission STS-51-L.

Resnik was the second American female astronaut, logging 145 hours in orbit. She was a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and had a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland. The IEEE Judith Resnik Award for space engineering is named in her honor.

Early life

Judith Arlene Resnik was born in 1949 to Sarah and Marvin, an optometrist, in Akron, Ohio. Both her parents were Jewish emigrants from Ukraine. A graduate of Firestone High School in 1966, she excelled in mathematics and played classical piano. While at Firestone she achieved a perfect SAT score, the only female to do so that year. She received a B.S. in electrical engineering from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University in 1970, the year she married fellow student Michael Oldak.[1] They divorced in 1975. In 1977 Resnik earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the University of Maryland.

Career

Upon graduation from Carnegie Mellon, she was employed at RCA as a design engineer, and later worked with various NASA projects contracted to the company.[2]

While working toward her doctorate, Resnik was affiliated with the National Institutes of Health as a biomedical engineer. Later, she was a systems engineer with Xerox Corporation.[3]

One of the first six women NASA astronauts, Dr. Resnik (third from left) stands behind a prototype Personal Rescue Enclosure

Resnik was recruited into the astronaut program January 1978 by actress Nichelle Nichols, who was working as a recruiter for NASA.[4] Resnik's first space flight was as a mission specialist on the maiden voyage of Discovery, from August to September 1984. She was likewise a mission specialist aboard Challenger for STS-51-L.[5][6][7] Resnik was the first American Jewish astronaut to go into space, the first Jewish woman, and only the second Jewish person to go to space (after Boris Volynov of the Soviet Union).[8]

For people accustomed to seeing images of astronauts in space, Resnik's first space mission still caused some notoriety. Not only was she one of the first women in space, but in weightlessness, she displayed a halo of flowing locks, a startling sight to many viewers who were accustomed to seeing closely cropped men. During the flight, she was acclaimed for her weightless acrobatics and a playful sense of humor, once holding a sign reading "Hi Dad" up to the camera, and displaying a sticker on her flight locker that advertised her crush on actor Tom Selleck.[9]

Following the Challenger disaster, examination of the recovered vehicle cockpit revealed that three of the crew Personal Egress Air Packs were activated: those of Resnik, mission specialist Ellison Onizuka, and pilot Michael J. Smith. The location of Smith's activation switch, on the back side of his seat, means that either Resnik or Onizuka could have activated it for him. This is the only evidence available from the disaster that shows Onizuka and Resnik were alive after the cockpit separated from the vehicle. If the cabin had lost pressure, the packs alone would not have sustained the crew during the two minute descent.[10]

Legacy

Mission Specialist Judith Resnik
Mission Specialist Judith Resnik on the middeck of Discovery during STS-41-D

Resnik has been awarded multiple posthumous honors, and has been honored with landmarks and buildings being named for her, including a lunar crater Resnik, located within the Apollo impact basin on the far side of the Moon. A dormitory at her alma mater, Carnegie Mellon, and the main engineering lecture hall at the University of Maryland are named for her. A memorial to Resnik and the crew of Space Shuttle Challenger has been dedicated in Seabrook, Texas, where Resnik lived while stationed at the Johnson Space Center.

The IEEE Judith A. Resnik Award was established in 1986 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and is presented annually to an individual or team in recognition of outstanding contributions to space engineering in areas of relevance to the IEEE.[11]

Resnik has been portrayed in works of nonfiction and fiction, including the 1990 made for TV movie Challenger where Julie Fulton portrayed her.

On February 23, 2010, Resnik was named one of ten finalists to represent Ohio in the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.[12]

See also

References

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

  1. ^ "Remembering the Challenger". The Ohio Historical Society Collections Blog.
  2. ^ UPI staff (4 February 1986). "Resnik was `living out a dream`". The Milwaukee Journal. UPI. Part 2 Page 5. Retrieved 3 July 2013. Both got engineering jobs with RCA Corp. in Morristown N.J.
  3. ^ Renner, Lisanne (29 January 1986). "Coverage from the day space shuttle Challenger exploded: Resnik liked a job label with no frills". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 3 July 2013. Resnik didn't earn her pilot's license -- her first step toward becoming an astronaut -- until she left the National Institutes of Health in 1977 and took a job as a senior systems engineer with Xerox Corp. in El Segundo, Calif.
  4. ^ "Nichelle Nichols, NASA Recruiter". NASA. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
  5. ^ "Biographical Data - Judith A. Resnick". National Aeronautics and Space Administration. December 2003.
  6. ^ "The 51-L Crew: Judy Resnick". The Challenger Center.
  7. ^ "Remarks of Senator John Glenn, Memorial Service For Judith Resnik". National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 1986-02-03.
  8. ^ "Judith Resnik". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
  9. ^ Wade, Mark. "Resnik". Retrieved 2009-11-21.
  10. ^ Joseph P. Kerwin. "Letter from Joseph Kerwin to Richard Truly relating to the deaths of the astronauts in the Challenger accident". National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Retrieved 2009-10-20.
  11. ^ "IEEE Judith A. Resnik Award". IEEE. Retrieved 2009-12-27.
  12. ^ Jim Siegel (February 24, 2010). "10 Ohioans proposed to represent state in U.S. Capitol". The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved February 27, 2010.

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