SHANNON LUCID

Lucid was born January 14, 1943 in Shanghai, China but considers Bethany, to be her hometown. Shegot a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from the University of Oklahoma in 1963 and a master of science and doctor of philosophy degrees in biochemistry from the University of Oklahoma in 1970 and 1973.

Lucid was selected as an astronaut in 1978 and has served as a mission specialist on six previous Shuttle flights, STS 51-B in 1985, STS-34 in 1989, STS-43 in 1991, STS-58 in 1993, STS-76 (outbound only) and STS-79 (homebound only) in 1996.

Shannon Lucid was the second U.S. astronaut to live on the Mir space station. She served as a mission specialist aboard Atlantis during STS-76 and remained aboard the Russian space station after the shuttle undocked and returned home. She had to stay three more weks than first planned whilke scientists checked out a problem with the SRB's. After a 188-day stay aboard Mir, Lucid returned to Earth aboard Atlantis on STS-79.

During her stay she lived in the Spektr module, while the two other cosmonauts lived in the Core module where they did much of their work, ate and spoke to mission control. She described the "weather" on Mir as an average day in Houston, very comfortable, and the air is very clean and has no odor. Every other week she had a video conference with her family and the other week she spoke with her family by voice only.

Lucid's six-month mission established her as the U.S. space flight duration record holder and the world's female record holder.