11 Facts About Joan Higginbotham

Joan Elizabeth Higginbotham was born on August 3,1964 and is an electrical engineer and a former NASA astronaut.

Joan Higginbotham flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-116 as a mission specialist and is the third African American woman to go into space, after Mae Jemison and Stephanie Wilson.

Joan Higginbotham received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 1987, and a master's in management science and in space systems both from the Florida Institute of Technology.

Joan Higginbotham is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and The Links, Incorporated.

Joan Higginbotham began her career in 1987, two weeks after getting her Bachelor of Science degree, at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, as a Payload Electrical Engineer in the Electrical and Telecommunications Systems Division.

Joan Higginbotham later worked on the Shuttle payload bay reconfiguration for all Shuttle missions and conducted electrical compatibility tests for all payloads flown aboard the Shuttle.

Joan Higginbotham was tasked by KSC management to undertake several special assignments where she served as the Executive Staff Assistant to the Director of Shuttle Operations and Management, led a team of engineers in performing critical analysis for the Space Shuttle flow in support of a simulation model tool, and worked on an interactive display detailing the Space Shuttle processing procedures at Spaceport United States.

Joan Higginbotham actively participated in 53 space shuttle launches during her 9-year tenure at Kennedy Space Center.

Joan Higginbotham logged over 308 hours in space during her mission with the crew of STS-116 where her primary task was to operate the Space Station Remote Manipulator System.

Joan Higginbotham took a scarf for the Houston Dynamo on board with her during her mission.

Joan Higginbotham was originally assigned to the crew of STS-126 targeted for launch in September 2008.