Pam Melroy interview – part one

Today in Space History recently conducted a phone interview with shuttle astronaut (and commander) Pam Melroy. She is a veteran of three shuttle missions: STS-92 (2000) as pilot, STS-112 (2002 as pilot, and STS-120 (2007) as commander. As of January 2008 Melroy is the only active female astronaut in the astronaut corp who is also on the list of shuttle commanders (meaning she has test pilot experience). There are roughly 25 women on the active astronaut NASA list for assignments.

Here are some previous posts we have made related to Pam Melroy:

• Historic Handshake between two female commanders
• Young women looking for mentors?
• Melroy finds fulfillment in ISS growing
• Pre-flight (STS-120) NASA interview with Melroy
• Melroy in elite company as commander
• Pam Melroy career bio

January 29th, 2008 interview with commander Pam Melroy

Part one – Talk about why the STS-120 shuttle mission (October 2007) was a success.

Melroy – listen (wav file: 57 secs)

Melroy talks about how STS-120 was a mission-success in spite of the challenges Kennedy Space Center faced with the problem of the torn solar array panels.

ISS016-E-008875 (3 Nov. 2007) — View of the repaired solar array photographed during the STS-120 mission’s fourth session of extravehicular activity (EVA) while Space Shuttle Discovery is docked with the International Space Station.