Megan McArthur
| K. Megan McArthur | |
|---|---|
 |
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| NASA Astronaut | |
| Nationality | American |
| Status | Active |
| Born |
August 30, 1971 Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. |
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Other occupation
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Oceanographer |
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Time in space
|
12 days, 21 hours, 38 min. |
| Selection | 2000 NASA Group |
| Missions | STS-125 |
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Mission insignia
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Katherine Megan McArthur (born August 30, 1971) is an American oceanographer and a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut. She has served as a Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) for both the space shuttle and space station. Megan McArthur has flown one space shuttle mission, STS-125. She is known as the last person to be hands on with the Hubble Space Telescope (although she was not actually "hands on" since she was using the robotic arm at the time). McArthur has served in a number of positions including working in the Shuttle Avionics Laboratory (SAIL). She is married to fellow astronaut Robert L. Behnken.
McArthur was born in Honolulu, Hawaii but grew up in Northern California. She dreamed of being an astronaut when she was a teenager. She attended London Central High School and graduated from St. Francis High School in Mountain View, California, then later earned a B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from UCLA in 1993. In 2002, she was awarded a Ph.D. in oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
At the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, McArthur conducted graduate research in nearshore underwater acoustic propagation and digital signal processing. Her research focused on determining geoacoustic models to describe very shallow water waveguides using measured transmission loss data in a genetic algorithm inversion technique. She served as Chief Scientist during at-sea data collection operations, and has planned and led diving operations during sea-floor instrument deployments and sediment-sample collections. While at Scripps, she participated in a range of in-water instrument testing, deployment, maintenance, and recovery, and collection of marine plants, animals, and sediment. During this time, McArthur also volunteered at the Birch Aquarium at Scripps, conducting educational demonstrations for the public from inside a 70,000 gallon exhibit tank of the California Kelp Forest.
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