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Judith
A. Resnik
Birthplace
& Date:
April 5, 1949, in
Akron, Ohio
Challenger
Position: Mission Specialist
Education: Graduated from Firestone High School, Akron,
Ohio, in 1966; received a bachelor of science degree in
electrical engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University in
1970, and a doctorate in electrical engineering from the
University of Maryland in 1977
Honors: Graduate Study Program
Award, RCA, 1971; American Association of University Women
Fellow, 1975-1976; and NASA Space Flight
Medal | |
| Judith A. Resnik was one of
three mission specialists on Challenger. Born on April 5, 1949 at
Akron, Ohio, the daughter of Dr. Marvin Resnik, a respected Akron
optometrist, and Sarah Resnik. Brought up in the Jewish religion,
Resnik was educated in public schools before attending
Carnegie-Mellon University, where she received a B.S. in electrical
engineering in 1970, and the University of Maryland, where she took
at Ph.D. in the same field in 1977. Resnik worked in a variety of
professional positions with the RCA corporation in the early 1970s
and as a staff fellow with the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at the
National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, between 1974
and 1977.
Selected as a NASA astronaut in January
1978, the first cadre containing women, Resnik underwent the
training program for Shuttle mission specialists during the next
year. Thereafter, she filled a number of positions within NASA at
the Johnson Space Center, working on aspects of the Shuttle program.
Resnik became the second American woman in orbit during the maiden
flight of Discovery, STS-41-D, between August 30 and
September 5, 1984. During this mission she helped to deploy three
satellites into orbit; she was also involved in biomedical research
during the mission. Afterward, she began intensive training for the
STS-51- L mission on which she was killed.
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