Whether they sailed
across the oceans, climbed imposing mountains, or rolled
across the Great Plains, pioneers were first to explore
new frontiers. Colonel Susan Helms isn’t rambling across
the prairie in a covered wagon, but she is a pioneer.
She is an astronaut. Her frontier, space.

Helms was the first U.S. military woman in space in 1993,
the first woman to inhabit the International Space
Station in 2001 and she holds the world record, along
with her crewmate Army Col. Jim Voss, for the longest
space walk of eight hours and 56 minutes also in 2001.
She is now the chief of the Space Control Division at
Air Force Space Command.

After graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colo.,
in 1980, Helms was commissioned into the Air Force as
an engineer. She completed the test engineer course at
the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB, Calif.,
in 1987, with high marks as a distinguished graduate
and was the recipient of the R. L. Jones Award for
Outstanding Flight Test Engineer.

It was during that course when someone first mentioned
that she would be competitive for the astronaut
program after graduation. Throughout the course, she
also met with several astronauts to talk about the
U.S. space program.

The defining moment for Helms was during the test pilot
school graduation, when guest speaker Col. Dick Covey,
an astronaut, approached her and said, “I hope we see
you in Houston some time.” He was referring to the
Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, the home of
astronaut training.

“I took that as the final sign that I should probably
apply for the astronaut program,” Helms said, “So
[Covey] was a big motivator in getting me to fill out
the application and send it in.”

Helms was selected by the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration for the astronaut program in January
1990, and became an astronaut in July 1991. Her first
mission, on board Space Shuttle Endeavor, was in January
1993. She flew three more shuttle missions in 1994, 1996
and 2000.

It wasn’t until she became the first woman to live on
the International Space Station in 2001, that she said
she felt like a pioneer. Helms and her ISS crewmates,
Voss and Russian cosmonaut Yury Usachev, were the first
mixed-gender crew to live together for six months.

Helms’ entire life was up in space. She didn’t have an
earth address anymore, as she had packed up and stored
all of her possessions. “I was very disconnected from
Earth,” she said.

“When we had to go fly for six months, I effectively
just closed down my earth life. I acted like it was a
military deployment,” said Helms. “I lived in space,
it was my home.”

Her life in space did not exempt her from home
improvement chores or having guests drop by to visit.
Helms and Voss performed their world record space walk
while installing hardware to the external body of the
laboratory module of the space station. Her crew also
welcomed a visiting Russian space crew, which included
the first space tourist.

After nearly six months aboard the ISS, it was time
to return to Earth. She was a veteran of five space
flights, totaling 211 days in space during her 12-year
NASA career, and she realized it was time to step
aside and give others the opportunity to fly in space.
It was her last space flight.

With 22 years of military service, Helms could have
retired after her astronaut career, as most military
astronauts do. Instead, she chose to return to the
active-duty Air Force.

“The Air Force has always been so supportive of the
things I wanted to do and I guess I felt the time had
come to come back and help with the military space
program,” she said.

Although Helms has traded in her space suit for her Air
Force uniform again, she will always feel deep ties to
her NASA family. When she was asked about the Space
Shuttle Columbia accident, those ties became evident.

“It’s a devastating event for the entire NASA family,”
Helms said. “The focus is on the astronauts but the
truth of the matter is that there are thousands of
others who are equally devastated. The ground crew that
works with the Columbia vehicle; I can’t even imagine
how they feel. The people in mission control who work
the missions hour by hour, looking at the data,
wondering if they missed something. The folks who
trained the crew; they worked with them for three
years. They were like family. The whole extended NASA
family is just devastated,” she said.

Although Helms grieves for the loss of the shuttle and
her crew, she agrees with President Bush and NASA that
the space program must continue.

“This loss won’t change the way human beings are wired,
so I’m sure that the human race’s desire for exploration
will be all it will take to get the program moving
forward again.” she said.