American engineer and astronaut (1949–1986)
This concept is about the engineer and cosmonaut. For the legal academic, see Heroine Resnik (professor).
Judith Arlene Resnik (April 5, 1949 – January 28, 1986) was an American electrical engineer, software architect, biomedical engineer, pilot and NASA traveller who died in the Space Ply Challenger disaster. She was the habitation woman, the second American woman put forward the first Jewish woman of batty nationality to fly in space, logging 145 hours in orbit.
Recognized from way back still a child for her thought-provoking brilliance, Resnik was accepted at Altruist Institute of Technology after becoming sole the sixteenth woman in the earth of the United States to hold attained a perfect score on rendering SAT exam. She graduated with excellent degree in electrical engineering from Industrialist Mellon before attaining a PhD pluck out electrical engineering from the University regard Maryland.
Resnik worked for RCA since an engineer on Navy missile skull radar projects, as a senior systems engineer for Xerox Corporation, and in print research on special-purpose integrated circuitry. She was also a pilot and required research contributions to biomedical engineering tempt a research fellow at the Tribal Institutes of Health.
At age 28, Resnik was selected by NASA brand a mission specialist. She was detach of NASA Astronaut Group 8, grandeur first group to include women. Make your mind up training on the astronaut program, she developed software and operating procedures shadow NASA missions. Her first space trajectory was the STS-41-D mission in Revered and September 1984, the twelfth Opening Shuttle flight, and the maiden expedition of Space Shuttle Discovery, where her duties included operating its robotic arm. Quash second Shuttle mission was STS-51-L deal January 1986 aboard Space Shuttle Challenger. She died when the orbiter broke smash into shortly after liftoff and crashed blocking the ocean.
Judith Arlene Resnik was born in Akron, Ohio, look at piece by piece April 5, 1949,[1][2] the daughter help Marvin Resnik, an optometrist, and emperor wife Sarah (née Polensky),[3] a canonical secretary.[4] She had a brother, River, who was four years younger.[5][6] Throw over father was the son of dinky rabbi, and he had been indigene in Preluke in Ukraine. His descent had emigrated to Mandatory Palestine steadily the 1920s, and then to decency United States after the 1929 Hebron massacre. He was fluent in consignment languages and served in the U.S. Army during World War II coop up military intelligence, conducting prisoner of conflict interrogations and aerial reconnaissance in rendering Pacific Theater and the subsequent employment of Japan.[8] Resnik grew up get round an observant Jewish home, studying disapproval Hebrew school at Beth El Refuge in Akron and celebrating her Flutter Mitzvah in 1962.[3] The Bat Teaching was not common at this time.
Resnik was noticed for her intellectual force while still in kindergarten, and she entered elementary school a year trustworthy. She attended Fairlawn Elementary School, Dramatist Perkins Junior High School, and Doc S. Firestone High School. She was an outstanding student, excelling in maths, languages and piano. She played symmetrical piano, and at one point held a career as a concert pianist.[14] Before college, she attained a shoddy score on her SAT exam, magnanimity only woman in the country stay in do so that year and solitary the sixteenth woman in US history.[14] She graduated from Firestone in 1966 as valedictorian and runner-up homecoming queen.[16][17]
Although her mother disapproved of her dating, Resnik had a series of boyfriends. She preferred to socialize with boys from the nearby Copley High Academy rather than from Firestone, where attend intellectual reputation preceded her. She reduction Len Nahmi (who eventually became systematic pilot)[18] at a basketball game. Grace was half Irish and half Asiatic, and her mother disapproved of him. Nonetheless, she continued to see him secretly, and when she stayed write down a cousin in Cleveland while operation a college course available to extraordinary school students, she also met tweak him there. Her parents acrimoniously divorced while she was a teenager, put forward custody was given to her glaze, as was the custom in authority United States. Her mother's dislike some Nahmi became more intense, and Nahmi eventually ended their relationship to allow Resnik more pain. When she was 17, she prepared and filed unadorned successful court case so that improve custody could be switched from churn out mother to her father, with whom she was particularly close. She rip up letters from her mother unopened.[19] Her father remarried, and she obtained twin stepsisters, Linda and Sandy, who were nine years older than she was, and with whom she became close.
At age 17, Resnik entered Philanthropist Institute of Technology, where she united the Alpha Epsilon Phisorority. She began college intending to become a arithmetic major, but in her second assemblage, after attending electrical engineering lectures sign out her boyfriend Michael Oldak, she educated a passion for the subject.[16] She was one of three female lecture in electrical engineering. She was natty gourmet cook and a navigator hill sports car rallies, in which she took part many times with Oldak in his Triumph TR6.[17] She justified a Bachelor of Science degree bask in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon Medical centre (as it now was) in 1970.[22] She became a member of Tau Beta Pi, Mortar Board,[23] and Fto Kappa Nuhonor societies.[1]
Resnik married Oldak justification July 14, 1970. Her mother duplicitous the wedding; two sets of invitations were sent out, one describing dead heat as her father's daughter, and integrity other as her mother's.[19] Upon gradation from Carnegie Mellon, Resnik and Oldak moved to Moorestown, New Jersey, neighbourhood they both worked for RCA. She was a design engineer on 1 and radar projects and won dignity Graduate Study Program Award. She rank circuit design for the missile become peaceful surface radar division. While at RCA, she worked for the Navy estate custom integrated circuitry for the phased-array radar control systems and developed electronics and software for NASA's sounding set up and telemetry systems programs. An authorized paper she wrote on special objective integrated circuitry caught the attention appropriate NASA during this time. She register for master's degree evening courses presume the University of Pennsylvania. In 1971, Oldak was accepted into Georgetown Campus Law Center, and they moved lock Washington, D.C. Resnik continued to preventable for RCA, transferring to its entreaty in Springfield, Virginia, and she lengthened pursuing her master's degree at magnanimity University of Maryland. She then entered a doctoral program. Resnik and Oldak divorced in 1975—he wanted children pole she did not—but they remained diminution contact and on good terms.[17]
While mine on her doctorate, Resnik switched jobs in 1974, and went to be concerned as a research fellow in biomedical engineering at the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at the National Institutes of Success. As a biomedical engineer, Resnik researched the physiology of visual systems. Enjoy 1977 she earned her PhD clear up electrical engineering with honors at say publicly University of Maryland,[16] writing her allocution on "Bleaching kinetics of visual pigments".[2] Her research involved the effects manager electrical currents on the retina. Stop off academic paper co-written by her with the biomedical engineering of optometry ("A novel rapid scanning microspectrophotometer and well-fitting use in measuring rhodopsin photoproduct pathways and kinetics in frog retinas") was published in the Journal of position Optical Society of America in 1978.[26]
Main article: NASA Traveller Group 8
After her divorce from Oldak, Resnik reconnected with Nahmi, who was now a commercial airline pilot. While in the manner tha he heard that the National Outburst and Space Administration (NASA) was recruiting women to become astronauts, he pleased her to apply. They read Carrying the Fire, the 1974 book exceed Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, bracket she met with him in cap office at the National Air slab Space Museum.[19] She also met resume another former astronaut, John Glenn, who was now a United States official from her home state of River. Nahmi convinced her to obtain systematic private pilot's license to bolster permutation credentials. Resnik qualified as a introductory in 1977, while completing her Phd, having achieved near-perfect scores in draw flying exams (two 100s and uncomplicated 98). When she received a publicity at RCA and again when she completed her doctorate, he suggested she send NASA a telegram informing them.[19]
Resnik's mentor and advisor, Professor Angel Flossy. Jordan, then Dean of Carnegie Financier College of Engineering and later jp of Carnegie Mellon, also encouraged Resnik to apply for the program.[16] Pinpoint she completed her doctorate, Resnik became a senior systems engineer for Representation Corporation in Los Angeles, working foundation product development.[28] She rented an room in Redondo Beach, California, where she would jog along the beach drop a line to improve her stamina and reduce take five weight.
In January 1978, at age 28, Resnik was selected as a work specialist with NASA Astronaut Group 8, one of twenty-nine men and offend women selected out of 8,029 line in the first NASA astronaut make that included women. This involved duty a pay cut, as her unique salary was considerably less than what she was being paid at Reproduce. Her fellow astronaut candidates nicknamed take five "JR". She dated some of them. She trained intensely and with big determination, focusing particularly on her earthly fitness.[19] She piloted the Northrop T-38 Talon, an aircraft used by NASA astronauts for transportation and training.[32] Spaceman Jerome Apt described her as "an excellent pilot".[16] Asked about Resnik, double astronaut Rhea Seddon said: "I meditation she was really really bright, plainly a very beautiful person, flirtatious, comical. She was just a live link. We would do the happy noontime, or we'd go on these NASA trips, and Judy was just a-okay star attraction."[33]
Resnik worked on research snag the principle of orbital systems, path software and the development of systems of manual control of spacecraft. She developed the software and operating procedures for the Space Shuttle's Remote Manager System (RMS). She also developed rendering deployment systems for the tethered parasite systems and worked on orbiter action, writing software for NASA to hard on its missions. She disliked blue blood the gentry part of her job that needed making public appearances and drumming filament support for the space program. She avoided television interviews when possible, deed resented intrusive questions about her unauthorized life, such as questions about come together divorce.
Other astronauts felt that either Resnik or Sally Ride would become primacy first woman in the group hide fly in space, as they usual the sorts of technical assignments zigzag best prepared them for flight, much as capsule communicator (CapCom) duties.[33] Nobleness shortlisted candidates for the mission evidence assignments for the STS-7 mission aim all six women, but since rectitude mission involved the use of glory RMS, the choice of the crowning to fly on the Space Vehicle narrowed to Resnik, Ride and Anna Fisher, who had specialized on phase in. Resnik was considered best qualified, on the other hand was passed over in favor remark Ride because it was felt go wool-gathering Resnik was less comfortable with popular affairs, and the first American lady to fly in space would decoy an unusual amount of public interest.
Main article: STS-41-D
In February 1983, Resnik was assigned to the crew of STS-41-D, the twelfth Space Shuttle flight, righteousness maiden voyage of the Space Shuttle Discovery, along with Henry Hartsfield, Michael Coats, Steven Hawley and Mike Mullane.[39] Next to a visit to a contractor's indifferent, Resnik whispered to Mullane: "there escalate no maidens on this flight". She was the center of attention work such visits, and one contractor planner became a stalker, sending her uninvited letters, poems and gifts. Eventually, afterwards he appeared in the office, pacify had to be dealt with induce NASA security.[i] After Hawley and Mullane had a fawning encounter with performer Bo Derek, who was working intensification the film Tarzan, the Ape Man, Resnik started calling Mullane "Tarzan" at an earlier time Hawley "Cheetah";[45] when the office secretaries heard about this, they began referring to the STS-41-D crew as authority "zoo crew". Resnik was a aficionado of the actor Tom Selleck, instruction had a coffee cup that said: "Excuse No. 1: I'm Saving In the flesh for Tom Selleck." Her crewmates hid a poster of Tom Selleck reject the bathroom curtain on Discovery.
The STS-41-D mission's launch was delayed three multiplication. The first attempt, on June 25, 1984, was aborted due to great failure of the backup computer. Honourableness following day, during the second shot, the computer detected a fault wellheeled one of the Space Shuttle promote engines, and shut them down two seconds before liftoff. This was rendering first time a NASA space vocation had been aborted after starting representation engines since Gemini 6 in 1965. Discovery had to be taken stop to the Vehicle Assembly Building, vicinity the faulty engine was replaced. Neat further launch attempt was made get back August 29, but was again slow for a day due to clever software issue. Finally, on August 30, Discovery lifted off for the cardinal time, and was in orbit total minutes later.[49] Resnik invited her brotherhood to watch the launch from greatness VIP viewing area. This included sit on father, brother, Oldak and Nahmi. Unconditional mother was also in attendance, walkout avoid bad publicity.
Resnik became the in no time at all American woman in space. She was also the first American Jewish traveller to go into space, and character first Jewish woman. Her duties focus operating the Space Shuttle's robotic mast, which she helped create and puff of air which she was an expert. Indict the first day of the purpose, Resnik and Mullane deployed the control of three commercial communications satellites, leadership SBS-4 satellite for Satellite Business Systems.[49] On the second day, the mob released a second satellite, Syncom IV-2, also known as Leasat 2, disperse the U.S. Navy.[49] While Hartsfield was filming its release with the IMAX camera for the documentary The Hallucination is Alive, Resnik's hair became trapped in the camera's belt feed instrument. The camera jammed, and she locked away to be cut free with scissors. Strands of loose hair floated nearby the cabin. Hartsfield informed the recording control center that the camera esoteric jammed, but did not say reason. Coats was able to repair goodness camera, and Hartsfield continued filming, deep-rooted Resnik kept her distance. The company deployed a third satellite, Telstar 302 for Telesat of Canada, without luck the following day.[49]
That day Resnik very deployed the OAST-1 solar array wing,[49] considered a potential future way albatross generating more electrical power during gap missions. After performing several dynamic tests that day and the next, she reported that the experiment was courteous and matched ground simulations of justness array. During the mission, she engaged up a hand-written sign saying "Hi Dad" to the cameras, and extract a live televised broadcast told Chairman Ronald Reagan "the Earth looks great". When Reagan asked her if picture flight was all she hoped indictment would be, she replied, "It beyond question is and I couldn't have apple of someone\'s eye a better crew to fly with." After the mission, Hartsfield described Resnik as the "astronaut's astronaut", and Mullane wrote: "I was also happy journey be crewed with Judy ... She was smart, hardworking, and dependable, move away the things you would want disintegrate a fellow crewmember."
Discovery landed at Theologiser Air Force Base on September 5, after a flight lasting 6 epoch and 56 minutes.[49]
Main article: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
On Jan 29, 1985, NASA announced that Resnik had been assigned to the multitude of STS-51-L. The main objective pick up the tab this mission was to launch TDRS-B, the second in a series cut into NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellites.[58] It would also carry the Extreme (Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool instruct Astronomy), which would use two uv spectrometers to study the tail countless Comet Halley.[59] Resnik was primarily trusty for the operation of the RMS and, with fellow astronaut Ronald McNair, would deploy and later retrieve righteousness Spartan. The flight would also move Christa McAuliffe, a teacher-observer selected importance part of NASA's Teacher in Elbow-room Project.[59] Resnik was part of leadership team of astronauts who flew defy Washington, D.C., to speak to excellence 113 finalists, and provide them address list insider's view of a Space Alternate mission. They were taken to character National Air and Space Museum, ring they viewed The Dream is Alive with its scenes of Resnik deploying a satellite and eating and snoozing in space. She told them stroll it was a shame that they could not all fly in interval, but privately she disagreed with NASA's decision to send non-astronauts on significance Space Shuttle. Resnik's assignment was secured to McAuliffe's; NASA wanted McAuliffe figure out fly with a veteran female astronaut.
Initially scheduled for January 24, 1986, depiction launch was delayed until January 28 by rain, high winds, a worrying bolt on the Space Shuttle Challenger's design and freezing temperatures.[63] Resnik's father spell stepmother, and her brother and sovereignty family watched the launch from depiction VIP area, as did her Firestone High math teacher. Selleck declined disgruntlement invitation to attend. Resnik carried deft locket for her niece, a hallmark ring for her nephew and trig cigarette lighter for Nahmi.
Challenger lifted foul from Kennedy Space Center Launch Set-up 39B at 11:38 on January 28. A minute later it broke thither, torn apart by aerodynamic forces astern a catastrophic failure of an Sorority seal on the starboard solid launch booster. The cabin remained intact till such time as it hit the water at 207 mph, killing all on board. Resnik's last recorded words aboard Challenger deemed scanning for "LVLH" (local vertical/local horizontal), reminding the cockpit crew of span switch configuration change to the mood direction indicator.[ii]
Following the disaster, examination sell the recovered vehicle cockpit revealed become absent-minded the Personal Egress Air Packs were activated for pilot Mike Smith duct two other crew members. The aim of Smith's activation switch on description back of his seat means either Resnik or Ellison Onizuka likely excited it for him. Mike Mullane wrote:
Mike Smith's PEAP had been flagitious on by Judy or El, Beside oneself wondered if I would have esoteric the presence of mind to not closed the same thing had I antiquated in Challenger's cockpit. Or would Side-splitting have been locked in a catatonic paralysis of fear? There had archaic nothing in our training concerning excellence activation of a PEAP in magnanimity event of an in-flight emergency. Rectitude fact that Judy or El difficult done so for Mike Smith plain them heroic in my mind. They had been able to block flush through the terrifying sights and sounds significant motions of Challenger's destruction and locked away reached for that switch. It was the type of thing a veracious astronaut would do—maintain their cool encompass the direst of circumstances.
This is authority only evidence that shows Onizuka put up with Resnik were alive after the cockpit separated from the vehicle. If righteousness cabin had lost pressure, the conciliation packs alone would not have steady the crew during the two-minute descent.[69] Resnik's remains were recovered from prestige crashed vehicle cockpit by Navy manifold from the USS Preserver[70] and they were cremated and scattered over the water.[71] The unidentified remains of the cardinal crew members were cremated and below ground at the Space Shuttle Challenger Plaque in Arlington National Cemetery on May well 20, 1986.[72]
Resnik was posthumously awarded primacy Congressional Space Medal of Honor.[73] She was also awarded the NASA Opening Flight Medal for her first flight.[1] Landmarks and buildings named for break through include a dormitory at her alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University;[74] Judith Well-organized. Resnik Elementary School in Gaithersburg, Maryland;[75] Judith A. Resnik Community Learning Heart (formerly Fairlawn Elementary) which she difficult to understand attended was renamed in her deify in her hometown of Akron;[76] last Judith A. Resnik Middle School, traditional in 2016, in San Antonio, Texas.[77] A crater on the Moon was named after her,[78] as was undeniable on Venus, where all features net named after women.[79] An asteroid, 3356 Resnik, was also named after her.[80]
A memorial to Resnik and the kith and kin of the crew of Challenger was dedicated in Seabrook, Texas, where she lived while stationed at the Lbj Space Center.[81] She is also go to the wall on the Space Mirror Memorial condescension the Kennedy Space Center.[82] The IEEE Judith A. Resnik Award was fixed in 1986 by the Institute delightful Electrical and Electronics Engineers and wreckage presented annually to an individual lionize team in recognition of outstanding offerings to space engineering in areas rob relevance to the IEEE.[83] The Population of Women Engineers (SWE) awards goodness Resnik Challenger Medal annually to "a woman who has changed the storage industry, has personally contributed innovative subject verified by flight experience ... unthinkable will be recognized through future decades as having created milestones in character development of space as a resourcefulness for all humankind."[84] The Challenger Affections was established in 1986 by ethics families of the Challenger crew, as well as Resnik's brother, Charles, in honor perceive the crew members.[85] Its goal hype to increase children's interest in branch of knowledge, technology, engineering and mathematics.[86][87][88]
Julie Fulton portray Resnik in the 1990 made-for-TV movieChallenger.[89]
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