(Newser)
“Millie Hughes-Fulford, an astronaut and scientist who became the first payload to fly into space for NASA, died last week after years of fighting cancer,” her family said. He was 75 years old. Hughes-Fulford was selected by NASA for its astronaut program in 1983 and in June 1991 spent nine days in orbit on the Columbia shuttle, conducting experiments on the effect of space travel on humans as part of the agency’s first mission, STS- 40. She and her crew have circled the Earth 146 times, the AP reports. The research shaped the rest of her career and, upon her return, established the Hughes-Fulford Laboratory at the San Francisco VA Healthcare System, which worked to understand the mechanisms that regulate cell growth in mammals. “She returned to her world as a scientist and carried this experience of flying in space and became a unique filter through which she went through all her scientific work,” said Dr. Mike Barratt, a NASA flight surgeon assigned to Columbia.
“She told me that when she takes off in the shuttle she is not afraid at all,” said her niece. “He was logically thinking about the next pregnancy and that’s how he dealt with everything, including cancer.” Millie Elizabeth Hughes was born in 1945 in Mineral Wells, Texas. At age 16, she entered Tarleton State University, where she majored in chemistry and biology and was often the only woman in the class. The men did not appreciate her when she passed the exams, her niece said. After earning a doctorate in biochemistry, he applied for 100 academic jobs across the country and received four answers. He accepted a job as a lab. In 1978, Hughes-Fulford responded to a magazine ad seeking applicants to be the first woman in space. She reached the last 20, out of 8,000 candidates, before Sally Ride was elected, then went into space on Columbia as a researcher. “Millie has been a source of inspiration on so many levels, from the surface of the earth to the orbit of the earth,” said a colleague. “He infused every conversation with compassion, optimism, energy, humor and an unwavering confidence that a solution could be found.”
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