By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief. Coleman has a bachelor's degree in biological science and is also a science reporter.
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CLEVELAND, Ohio-Ohio Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09) released a statement after Dr. Janet L. Kavandi, a retired astronaut and current director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's John H. Glenn Research Center in Brook Park in suburban Cleveland, announced her retirement from NASA, effective Sept. 30.
"Director Kavandi is an exceptional leader," said Kaptur, a Toledo Democrat whose ninth congressional district, where NASA's Midwestern agency sits, extends to Cleveland, and the longest serving woman in Congress. "It is with absolute admiration and gratitude that I thank her for her service and tenure as director at NASA Glenn and also as a decorated astronaut."
In early June NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine endorsed Kavandi as deputy administrator of the agency, but the U.S. Senate, in July, and with support from the White House, confirmed Jim Morhard, a veteran Senate staffer and former deputy sergeant-at-arms for the Senate, for the position.
The House of Representatives has approved a larger NASA budget of $22.3 million for 2020, with no specifics on Glenn's share, and it awaits Senate action, the U.S House largely Democratic and the Senate mainly Republican.
Kaptur said that Kavandi directed NASA Glenn and the Plum Brook Station in building upon critical components of NASA's mission in human space flight.
"Director Kavandi is an inspiration and I congratulate her on her retirement and extraordinary career," said Kaptur, who said that Kavandi's successor will fill a crucial position.
The congresswoman said she looks "forward to working with the Ohio Congressional Delegation and the NASA Administrator to ensure that the new center director has the experience necessary to embark on a new era of exploration, discovery, and job-creating innovation at NASA Glenn."
Activists are watching too relative to Kavandi's replacement, saying they want to make sure NASA's Cleveland agency has women and minorities in leadership roles in the 21st century.
NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field is a NASA center in suburban Cleveland and one of 10 NASA field centers nationwide, NASA with the primary mission to develop science and technology for use in aeronautics and space.
A patented-winning chemist turned astronaut and ultimately director of NASA's Cleveland research facility, Kavandi has not said why she is retiring but said in a statement that she debated over her decision to leave NASA.
“It was a difficult decision to call my NASA career to an end, especially at a time when the agency is preparing to send the first woman and the next man to the moon,” said Kavandi. “The agency has provided me with experiences I could have never imagined, and it was an absolute honor to lead the men and women at NASA Glenn."
Director since 2016, Kavandi, 60, leaves the space agency with 25 years of service, and was an astronaut when Dr. Mae Jemison was among hardly a handful of U.S. women astronauts, Jemison, 62, the first Black woman in space, her one and only space mission undertaken in 1992 as part of the crew of the space shuttle Endeavor.
Some 59 different women total, including cosmonauts, astronauts, payload specialists, and foreign nationals have flown in space worldwide, the first woman making a space mission in 1963, and former astronaut Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space in 1983, more than 40 American women following in her footsteps.
Ride died in 2012 at 61-year-old of pancreatic cancer.
A native of Carthage, Missouri, Kavani was the valedictorian of her high school graduating class and later earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry, an engineering degree, and a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of Washington.
She was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1994, eight years after the disastrous explosion of the space shuttle Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986 at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, the explosion occurring just 73 seconds into taking off and claiming the lives of school teacher Christa McAuliffe, and all six astronauts on board, including Judith Resnik, who was Akron, Ohio native, and Ronald McNair, who was Black.
Her decorated career spans three space shuttle missions and, like Jemison, Ride, Resnik and other women astronauts, she broke barriers for women during a time when the space and aeronautics field in general was unfriendly to women, and Blacks.
Currently, NASA has some 38 active astronauts nationwide, none of them Black.
Kavandi traveled to space in 1998, 2000, and 2001, and was trained for spacewalking, though she never walked in space.
She also worked in NASA'S Robotics Branch and trained crews on board the International Space Station.
Before becoming director of NASA Glenn in Cleveland, Kavandi served as NASA's deputy chief of the Astronaut's Office.
Kavandi said she is "extremely proud of the work being done today to prepare for Artemis and the next generation of commercial aviation."
Rep. Kaptur said Dr. Kavandi leaves behind a legacy of achievements.
"Our Northern Ohio region is better for Dr. Kavandi's remarkable service at NASA and to the nation," said Congresswoman Kaptur.
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