Sandra Harris
| Sandra Harris | |
 | |
| ISA Astronaut | |
|---|---|
| Status | Active |
| Born | July 16, 1990 |
| Species | Melanistic black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas) |
| Time in space | 115d 08h 54m |
| Selection | ISA Astronaut Group 18, 2011 |
| Missions | Phoenix 9, STS-217 |
| Mission insignia |  ,  |
Sandra Harris (born 16 July, 1990, Lafayette, Louisiana) is an American International Space Agency astronaut. At age 22, she flew to the Moon on the Phoenix 9 mission, becoming the 26th person to walk on the Moon and the youngest person to fly into space, a record previously held by Gherman Titov. Following her return from the Moon, she was selected as part of the crew of the STS-217 mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope.
Personal
Harris was born 16 July, 1990 in Lafayette, Louisiana and is the fraternal twin of Gregory James Harris, who died in 2008. She graduated Magnolia High School in Magnolia Bend, Louisiana and holds an associate degree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Harris is an avid equestrian and enjoys horseback riding, hockey and basketball. She is currently dating NHL player Adam Broussard, of the Louisiana IceGators.
ISA career
Following the murder of her brother in 2008 due to a hate crime, Harris petitioned the ISA International Council in Geneva, Switzerland to allow her to train for a lunar flight as part of the Phoenix Program in order to place his ashes on the Moon. Following a vote of the Council, she was selected as part of the 2011 ISA Astronaut Group (The Flying Toasters) and was selected for the Phoenix 9 mission. Phoenix 9 was the fifth crewed landing of the Phoenix Program, the 11th crewed lunar landing in history and the second mission to construct the Neil A. Armstrong Lunar Outpost. The mission launched on January 17, 2013 and Harris became the youngest person in history to reach space. The mission landed on the Moon on January 21st. The crew left the lunar surface on May 10th and landed at Edwards Air Force Base on May 12th.
Following her lunar flight, Harris was selected as a member of STS-217, which was originally slated to return the Hubble Space Telescope for display in Washington D.C. at the National Air and Space Museum. Following protests by engineers and scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and after a safety review noted the risks associated with the mission and the numerous modification required to the Shuttle to complete the mission, ISA managers altered STS-217's mission to become Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 5 (HST-SM5). The mission carried two new instruments to the telescope, the Advanced Multi-Object Spectrometer and Advanced Camera for Surveys 2. The mission also replaced a Fine Guidance Sensor, four gyroscopes, batteries and the telescope's main computer. STS-217 was flown by Space Shuttle Horizon and launched from Launch Complex 39D at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 24, 2017. It landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility on May 9. Harris performed three spacewalks on the telescope.
