Shannon Walker

Shannon Walker
NASA Astronaut
Nationality	American
Status	Active
Born	(1965-06-04) 4 June 1965 (age 51) Houston, Texas
Other occupation	Physicist
Time in space	163d 07h 11min
Selection	2004 NASA Group 19
Missions	Soyuz TMA-19 (Expedition 24/25)
Mission insignia

Shannon Walker (born 4 June 1965 in Houston, Texas) is an American scientist and a NASA astronaut, whose first space mission was Expedition 24 on the International Space Station with take-off on 15 June 2010. She is married to a fellow NASA astronaut, the Australian-born Andy Thomas. She is a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) and The Ninety-Nines International Organization of Women Pilots.

Walker graduated from Westbury High School in Houston in 1983; received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics from Rice University in Houston in 1987; received a Master of Science and a Doctor of Philosophy in Space Physics from Rice University in 1992 and 1993 respectively.

Walker began her professional career with the Rockwell Space Operations Company at the Johnson Space Center in 1987 as a robotics flight controller for the Space Shuttle Program. She worked several Space Shuttle missions as a flight controller in the Mission Control Center, including STS-27, STS-32, STS-51, STS-56, STS-60, STS-61, and STS-66. From 1990 to 1993, Walker took a leave of absence from the Johnson Space Center to attend graduate school, where her area of study was the solar wind interaction with the Venusian atmosphere. In 1995 she joined the NASA civil service and began working in the International Space Station (ISS) Program at the Johnson Space Center. Dr. Walker worked in the area robotics integration, working with the ISS International Partners in the design and construction of the robotics hardware for the Space Station. In 1998 she joined the ISS Mission Evaluation Room (MER) as a manager for coordinating on-orbit problem resolution for the International Space Station. In 1999, Walker moved to Moscow, Russia to work with the Russian Space Agency and its contractors in the areas of avionics integration for the ISS as well as integrated problem solving for the ISS. She returned to Houston in 2000 after a year in Russia and became the technical lead for the ISS MER as well as the Deputy Manager of the On-Orbit Engineering Office. Most recently, prior to selection as an astronaut candidate, Walker was the Acting Manager of the On-Orbit Engineering Office.