Before heading home from Russia’s Mir space station in September 1996, NASA astronaut Shannon W. Lucid checked on wheat plants growing in the station’s Svet greenhouse. It was one of many life-science and microgravity experiments she supported during a six-month mission alongside two Russian cosmonauts.
Lucid returned to Earth aboard space shuttle Atlantis on Sept. 26, 1996, after 188 days in space. NASA says the mission set new duration records at the time for an American and for a woman.
Her extended stay also helped NASA prepare for the cultural and psychological realities of long-duration crews on the International Space Station. Lucid, who joined NASA in 1978 as one of the agency’s first six female astronauts, later worked in Mission Control as a CAPCOM.
President Bill Clinton awarded Lucid the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in December 1996. She was the 10th recipient and the first woman to receive the honor. Source: NASA.
