Pamela Melroy
Pamela Anne Melroy (born September 17, 1961) is a retired United States Air Force officer and a former NASA astronaut. She served as pilot on Space Shuttle missions STS-92 and STS-112 and commanded mission STS-120 before leaving the agency in August 2009.
Melroy was born in Palo Alto, California. She received a bachelor\'s degree in physics and astronomy from Wellesley College in 1983. She then earned a master\'s degree in earth and planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984. On May 18, 2008, Melroy received an honorary degree from Iona College in New Rochelle, NY.
Melroy was commissioned through Air Force ROTC, Detachment 365, in 1983. After completing a master\'s degree, she attended Undergraduate Pilot Training at Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock, Texas and was graduated in 1985. Upon her graduation, she was assigned to the C-17 Combined Test Force, where she served as a test pilot until her selection for the astronaut program. She has logged over 5,000 hours of flight time in over 50 different aircraft. Melroy retired from the Air Force in February 2007. Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in December 1994, Melroy reported to the Johnson Space Center in March 1995. Melroy served as pilot on two flights (STS-92 in 2000 and STS-112 in 2002), and was the mission commander on STS-120 in 2007, making her the second woman to command a space shuttle mission (after Eileen Collins). The STS-120 crew visited the station during Expedition 16, commanded by Peggy Whitson. Whitson was the first female ISS commander, making the STS-120 mission the first time that two female mission commanders were in orbit at the same time.
In November 2020, Melroy was named a member of the Joe Biden presidential transition Agency Review Team to support transition efforts related to NASA.
Spaceflights:
No. Mission Position Time Duration
1 STS-92 Discovery PLT 11.10. - 24.10.2000 12d 21h 42m
2 STS-112 Atlantis PLT 07.10. - 18.10.2002 10d 19h 58m
3 STS-120 Discovery CDR 23.10. - 07.11.2007 15d 02h 23m
Total 38d 20h 03m
