Teachers

About Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger

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NASA’s next educator astronaut, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger is a mom, a teacher and now a full fledged astronaut. For five years Dorothy taught earth science and astronomy at Hudson’s Bay High School in Vancouver, Washington, coached cross-country and the Science Olympiad. With a Bachelor’s degree in Geology and some published research under her belt, she applied to NASA to become one of the nation’s educator astronauts following in the footsteps of Christa McAuliffe and Barbara Morgan.

Selected by NASA as a Mission Specialist in May 2004 she completed Astronaut Candidate Training that included scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station systems, physiological training, T-38 flight training, and water and wilderness survival training. At 29, she was the youngest member of the 2004 NASA Astronaut Candidate Corps. After receiving astronaut certification, Dorothy helped to guide NASA's space exploration education program.

Dorothy is now assigned to be a Mission Specialist aboard the next space shuttle flight on Discovery STS-131. She and her crew, commanded by Navy Captain Alan Poindexter, will deliver research and science experiment equipment, a new sleeping area and supplies to the station in a logistics module carried in the shuttle's payload bay. STS-131, the next scheduled mission of Space Shuttle~Discovery, targeted for launch 5 April 2010.

Link to NASA Biography

About STS-131

The Space Shuttle Discovery is targeted to launch April 5 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Commander Alan Poindexter will lead the STS-131 mission to the International Space Station aboard space shuttle Discovery. Jim Dutton will serve as the pilot. Mission Specialists are Rick Mastracchio, Clay Anderson, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson and Naoko Yamazaki of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Discovery will deliver a multi-purpose logistics module filled with science racks to be transferred to laboratories on the International Space Station. The mission will feature three spacewalks. Mastracchio and Anderson will conduct three six-and-a-half-hour-long spacewalks on flight days 5, 7 and 9 to replace an ammonia tank assembly, retrieve a Japanese experiment from the station’s exterior and switch out a rate gyro assembly on the S0 element of the station’s truss. STS-131 is the 33rd shuttle mission to the station. Following STS-131, only three more shuttle flights are scheduled. For more information on the mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

STS-131 Educational Resources

The educational activities on the STS-131 shuttle mission to the International Space Station will focus on robotics and careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

Without robotics, major accomplishments of building the station, repairing satellites in space and exploring other worlds would not be possible. Metcalf-Lindenburger will operate the space shuttle's robotic arm and a 50-foot Orbiter Boom Sensing System to inspect the shuttle for any damage that might have occurred during launch or in space. A digital camera and laser system on the boom's end provide three-dimensional imagery used by analysts to assess the health of the shuttle's heat shield.

For more information about robotics education, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/education/robotics