FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 4, 1998
NASA Shuttle Astronaut Pamela Melroy to Speak at
Wellesley College Commencement
Lieutenant Colonel, USAF, and NASA Astronaut Pamela Ann
Melroy will return to her alma mater on Friday, May 29, to
address the Class of 1998 at Wellesley College's 120th
Commencement exercises. The ceremonies will begin at 10:30
a.m. on Severence Green.
Only the second US woman in the history of NASA to
qualify as a shuttle pilot, Pamela Melroy is currently
assigned as pilot on the third and last Space Shuttle
mission to assemble the International Space Station before a
crew occupies the structure. Launch is scheduled for January
1999. Long before becoming one of only three women selected
by NASA to be pilot astronauts, Melroy showed the kind of
determination that ultimately led to her lifelong goal of
becoming an astronaut, a career she chose early on at age
11.
At Wellesley, she double-majored in physics and astronomy
and went on to earn her masters degree in Earth, atmospheric
and planetary sciences from MIT. She entered active duty in
the Air Force in 1983, completed Undergraduate Pilot
Training in 1985 and for the next six years worked as a
KC-10 pilot at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. She is
a veteran of operations Just Cause and Desert Shield/Desert
Storm with more than 200 combat and combat support hours. In
1991 she enrolled in the test pilot school at California's
Edwards Air Force base and upon graduation was assigned as
the Air Force lead structures and lead refueling test pilot
for the C-17, the newest military aircraft in the United
States. She set nine world records as test pilot for the
C-17 and has logged over 4,000 hours flight time in over 45
different aircraft. Melroy was selected for NASA's astronaut
program from over 4,000 applicants to fill one of
approximately 20 openings in the entering class in 1994. She
completed the training and evaluation program and was
qualified for flight assignment as a shuttle pilot.
Pamela Melroy graduated from Wellesley College in 1983.
She is currently working on Advanced Projects, including
Shuttle cockpit upgrades, for the Astronaut Office in
Houston while she awaits her flight.
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