Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan Our walk in space ‘ Brown hair, green eyes, 1.67 m height and 68 kg weight ’: that’s how the official NASA record describes the first woman to walk in space. Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan was born on 3rd October 1952 in Paterson (New Jersey). Her father, an aerospace engineer, passed on to his daughter an enthusiasm for everything related to the Cosmos. But young Kathryn planted her feet on the Earth instead, deciding to study geology at the University of California and graduating with honours in 1973. Five years later, in the cold and old lands of Nova Scotia (Canada), she earned a doctorate at Dalhousie University. During her studies in Canada, Sullivan actively participated in a series of oceanographic expeditions to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Pacific Ocean. In the summer of 1979, Dr Sullivan initiated a Copernican revolution in her career, swapping turbulent marine waters for the thunderous silence of space. Sooner or later, a person returns to their childhood. Quickly becoming a heavyweight NASA astronaut, she boarded the Space Shuttle Challenger for her first space mission. On 11th October 1984, having just turned 33 years old, Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan made history: she became the first woman to undertake extra-vehicular activity (EVA). Along with her fellow astronaut, David Leestma, Kathryn walked for three-and-a-half hours in the weightlessness of space to show the world that Challenger could be refuelled in orbit. Kathryn Sullivan led two more space flights. In April 1990, on board the Space Shuttle Discovery, she contributed to the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope, humankind’s eye beyond the terrestrial atmosphere. Two years later, in April 1992, Sullivan was appointed commander of the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Sciences, located in the cargo module of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. From there, she directed 12 scientific experiments to examine Earth’s atmosphere. After banking her 532 hours in space, Kathryn Sullivan finally left NASA in 1993 to hold related positions in different scientific institutes. In 2011, the US Senate ratified – unanimously – President Barack Obama’s proposal to appoint Dr Sullivan as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction, as well as Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The geologist managed to unite earth, sea and air under the auspices of great political responsibility. In 2017, she retired from public office and allowed herself a life dedicated to scientific dissemination. But she was still to perform one more feat that would amaze the world. In June 2020, 36 years after her space walk, Sullivan became the first woman to reach the Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth, at a depth of almost 11,000 m in the South Pacific. Kathryn D. Sullivan has led a life filled with ups and downs, in the most literal sense of the words: this is a woman characterised by lofty heights and deep wisdom. The noise of her passage through space will continue to roam the extent of the universe. 36
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