Kavandi

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Kavandi

Dr Janet Lynn Kavandi Status: Active. Trained as: Astronaut. Profession: Mission Specialist. Sex: Female. Marital Status: Married. Children: Two. Birth Date: 17 July 1959. Birth City: Springfield. Birth State: Missouri. Birth Country: USA. Nationality: American. Degree: PhD. Group: 1995 NASA Group. Date Selected: 09 December 1994. Number of Flights: 2. Total Time: 21.06 days.

NASA Official Biography

NAME: Janet Lynn Kavandi (Ph.D.): NASA Astronaut
PERSONAL DATA:: Born July 17, 1959 in Springfield, Missouri. Married to John Kavandi. They have two children. She enjoys snow skiing, hiking, camping, horseback riding, windsurfing, flying, scuba diving, piano. Her parents, William and Ruth Sellers of Cassville, Missouri, are deceased.
EDUCATION:: Graduated from Carthage Senior High School, Carthage Missouri, in 1977; received a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from Missouri Southern State College - Joplin in 1980; master of science degree in chemistry from the University of Missouri - Rolla in 1982; doctorate in analytical chemistry from the University of Washington - Seattle in 1990.
SPECIAL HONORS:: Elected to the National Honor Society, 1977. Valedictorian of Carthage Senior High School, 1977. Awarded Presidential Scholarship from Missouri Southern State College, 1977. Graduated magma cum laude from Missouri Southern State College, 1980. Elected to Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges, 1980; Who's Who of Emerging Leaders in America, 1989-90, 1991-92; and Who's Who in the West, 1987-88. Awarded certificates for Team Excellence and Performance Excellence from Boeing Missile Systems, 1991.
EXPERIENCE:: Following graduation in 1982, Dr. Kavandi accepted a position at Eagle-Picher Industries in Joplin, Missouri, as an engineer in new battery development for defense applications. In 1984, she accepted a position as an engineer in the Power Systems Technology Department of the Boeing Aerospace Company. During her ten years at Boeing, Kavandi supported numerous programs, proposals and red teams in the energy storage systems area through power analyses, trade studies, sizing, selection, development, testing and data analysis. She was lead engineer of secondary power for the Short Range Attack Missile II, and principal technical staff representative involved in the design and development of thermal batteries for Sea Lance and the Lightweight Exo-Atmospheric Projectile. Other programs she supported include Space Station, Lunar and Mars Base studies, Inertial Upper Stage, Advanced Orbital Transfer Vehicle, Get-Away Specials, Small Spacecraft, Air Launched Cruise Missile, Minuteman, and Peacekeeper. In 1986, while still working for Boeing, she was accepted into graduate school at the University of Washington, where she began working toward her doctorate in analytical chemistry. Her doctoral dissertation involved the development of a pressure-indicating coating that uses oxygen quenching of porphyrin photoluminescence to provide continuous surface pressure maps of aerodynamic test models in wind tunnels. Commercial imaging technology was used for data collection and analysis. This non-intrusive technique was developed to supplement or replace the more expensive and time consuming pressure tap method. Her work on pressure indicating paints has resulted in two patents to date. In addition to her patents, Dr. Kavandi has published and presented several papers at technical conferences and in scientific journals.
NASA EXPERIENCE:: Dr. Kavandi was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in December 1994 and reported to the Johnson Space Center in March 1995. Following an initial year of training, she was assigned to the Payloads and Habitability Branch where she currently supports payload integration for the International Space Station.

FEBRUARY 1997

Flight Log

STS-91 - - 1998 Jun 2 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 9.83 days. Flight details: STS-91.
The final shuttle-Mir mission, STS-91 recovered NASA astronaut Andy Thomas from the Mir station and took Russian space chief and ex-cosmonaut Valeri Ryumin to Mir for an inspection tour of the ageing station. This was the first test of the super lightweight Aluminium-Lithium alloy external tank, designed to increase shuttle payload to the Mir / International Space Station orbit by 4,000 kg. At 22:15 GMT Discovery entered an initial 74 x 324 km x 51.6 deg orbit, with the OMS-2 burn three quarters of an hour later circulising the chase orbit. Discovery docked with the SO module on Mir at 17:00 GMT on June 4. NASA equipment was retrieved from the station, and Discovery undocked at 16:01 GMT on June 8, and landed on Runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center at 18:00 GMT on June 12.
STS-99 - - 2000 Feb 11 - Assignment: Prime Crew. Flight Time: 11.23 days. Flight details: STS-99.
On an extremely successful mission the space shuttle Endeavour deployed the 61 metre long STRM mast. This was a side-looking radar that digitally mapped with unprecedented accuracy the entire land surface of the Earth between latitudes 60 deg N and 54 deg S. Sponsors of the flight included the US National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), NASA, and the German and Italian space agencies. Some of the NIMA data would remain classified for exclusive use by the US Department of Defense.

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Last update 3 May 2001.
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