Meet astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison, the one-time ‘Star Trek’ actress who beat William Shatner to space
Mae Jemison African American astronaut Mae Jemison, left, smiles as suit technician Sharon McDougle performs an unpressurized and pressurized leak check on her spacsuit prior to the STS-47 Spacelab-J mission on the shuttle Endeavour, at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, September 12, 1992. (Photo by NASA/Interim Archives/Getty Images) (Interim Archives/Getty Images)
ByKelli Dugan, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
William Shatner may have boldly gone where no “Star Trek” captain had gone before, but he was not the first actor from the beloved science-fiction franchise to venture into space.
That honor rests solely with NASA astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison, who flew as a mission specialist on the STS-47 flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour in September 1992 before appearing as a transporter officer in the Season 6 episode “Second Chances” of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” NASASpaceFlight.com stated.
Granted, Jemison was an astronaut before being cast on the Patrick Stewart-led spinoff, as were two other NASA astronauts, Terry Verts and Mike Finke, who both appeared in the “Star Trek: Enterprise” episode “These Are The Voyages…” in 2005, the agency stated.
Jemison, who celebrates her 65th birthday Sunday, is not only an astronaut but a doctor, engineer and author as well, according to her biographies logged with both NASA and the National Women’s History Museum.
According to her biographies, Mae Jemison was born in Decatur, Alabama, raised in Chicago and “grew up watching the Apollo airings on TV, but she was often upset that there were no female astronauts.”
The Stanford University graduate earned her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, as well as African and African-American studies in 1977. She then earned her medical degree from Cornell University and practiced general medicine for several years before serving two years in the Peace Corps as a medical officer in Africa.
Inspired by Sally Ride’s historic 1983 turn as the first American woman in space, Jemison applied in 1985 and 1987 to NASA’s astronaut program and was one of only 15 people chosen out of more than 2,000 applicants on her second attempt. On Sept. 12, 1992, Jemison became the first Black female astronaut to travel to space in the agency’s history.
Jemison is an inductee of both the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the International Space Hall of Fame.
By contrast, Shatner, 90, portrayed the iconic Capt. James T. Kirk from 1966 to 1969 in the original “Star Trek” series, as well as in multiple film adaptations over the years. He blasted off Wednesday from Van Horn, Texas, aboard a Blue Origin rocket as part of the sub-orbital spaceflight services company’s all-civilian crew that also included Blue Origin’s vice president of mission and flight operations, Audrey Powers, and crewmates Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries.
Jemison is currently leading the 100 Year Starship project through the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, committed to ensuring that human space travel to another star is possible within the next 100 years, according to the National Women’s History Museum.
Mae Jemison American engineer and astronaut Mae Jemison works in zero gravity in the centre aisle of the Spacelab Japan (SLJ) science module aboard OV-105, the Space Shuttle Endeavour, during NASA's STS-47 mission, 20th September 1992. Jemison is a Mission Specialist (MS) on the flight, and is the first Black woman to travel into space. (Photo by Space Frontiers/Getty Images) (Space Frontiers/Getty Images)
Mae Jemison Mae Jemison wearing Lyn Devon during Heart Truth Red Dress Fall 2007 (Photo by Thomas Concordia/WireImage) (Thomas Concordia/WireImage)
Mae Jemison Official portrait of the crew of Space Shuttle Mission STS-47 (from left, front) American NASA astronaut Jerome Apt and American NASA astronaut Curtis L Brown, Jr (both holding launch and entry helmets), (from left, rear) American NASA astronaut Jan Davis, American NASA astronaut Mark C Lee, American NASA astronaut Robert L Gibson, American NASA astronaut Mae C Jemison, and Japanese NASDA astronaut Mamoru Mohri pose (wearing launch and entry suits) with the flags of the United States and Japan in the background, at Johnson Space Space Center in Houston, Texas, June 1992. (Photo by Robert G Markowitz/Johnson Space Center/NASA/Space Frontiers/Archive Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) (Space Frontiers/Getty Images)
Mae Jemison NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 14: Astronaut Mae C. Jemison attends "One Strange Rock" World Premiere at Alice Tully Hall on March 14, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by John Lamparski/WireImage) (John Lamparski/WireImage)
Mae Jemison African-American NASA astronaut Mae Jemison, 1991. (Photo by Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images) (Afro Newspaper/Gado/Getty Images)
Mae Jemison African-American NASA astronaut Mae Jemison, Houston, Texas, 1992, Original Caption Reads: 'National Aeronautics And Space Administration, Astronaut Mae Jemison, Sts-47 Mission Specialist, Jsc- Houston, Tx'. (Photo by Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images) (Afro Newspaper/Gado/Getty Images)
Mae Jemison Garden City, N.Y.: NASA Astronaut, Dr. Mae C. Jemison, the first woman of color to go into space, speaks during a conference titled One Giant Leap: Apollo 11 @ 50, on the campus of Hofstra University in Garden City, New York on April 2, 2019. (Photo by Thomas A. Ferrara/Newsday RM via Getty Images) (Newsday LLC/Newsday RM via Getty Images)
Mae Jemison The crew of the shuttle Endeavor on STS-47. Jay Apt is center. Clockwise from right is Dr. Mae Jemison, Mamoru Mohri of Japan, Mark Lee, and his wife Dr. N. Jan Davis, Robert "Hoot" Gibson, and Curtis Brown. (Photo by NASA/Roger Ressmeyer/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images) (Corbis/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)
Mae Jemison NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 12: (L-R) Ann Druyan, Producer, Co-Founder and CEO of Cosmos Studios; Zac Manchester, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Harvard University; Yuri Milner, Breakthrough Prize and DST Global Founder; cosmologist Stephen Hawking, Dennis Stanton Avery and Sally Tsui Wong-Avery Director of Research, University of Cambridge; Freeman Dyson, Emeritus Professor, Princeton Institute for Advanced Study; Mae Jemison, Nasa Astronaut, Principal 100 Year Starship Foundation; Peter Worden, Chairman, Breaktrough Prize Foundation, Former NASA Director; Avi Loeb, Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University; and Philip Lubin, UC Santa Barbara Physics Professor attends the New Space Exploration Initiative "Breakthrough Starshot" Announcement at One World Observatory on April 12, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Gary Gershoff/WireImage) (Gary Gershoff/WireImage)
Mae Jemison AUSTIN, TX - MARCH 11: (L-R) Benjamin Palmer of The Barbarian Group, Dr. Mae Jemison, astronaut, doctor and founder of The Jemison Group, Dr. Jill Tarter and LeVar Burton, founder of RRKidz Inc. speak onstage at 100 Year Starship: Interstellar Travel & Beyond during the 2013 SXSW Music, Film + Interactive Festival at Austin Convention Center on March 11, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Rita Quinn/Getty Images for SXSW) (Rita Quinn)
Mae Jemison American NASA astronaut Mae Jemison conducts a Fluid Therapy System (FTS) experiment procedure, injecting a fluid into a mannequin's hand during research in the Spacelab Japan (SLJ) science module aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour during shuttle mission STS-47, 20th September 1992. FTS will examine the effect of low gravity on the administration of intravenous (IV) fluids in space, and since gravity assists in the delivery and flow of IV fluids on Earth, researchers want to determine what problems the absence of gravity would cause if an IV had to be administrated to an astronaut in space; American NASA astronaut Mark C Lee is partially visible at lower right. (Photo by Space Frontiers/Archive Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) (Space Frontiers/Getty Images)
Mae Jemison NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 26: Mae C. Jemison attends the National Geographic Channel 'MARS' New York Premiere at the School of Visual Arts on October 26, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage) (Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage)
Mae Jemison LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 28: Astronaut Mae Jemison (L) and actress Regina King speak onstage at the Genius Talks presented by RushCard at the 2014 BET Experience at L.A. LIVE on June 28, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jonathan Leibson/BET/Getty Images for BET) (Jonathan Leibson/BET/Getty Images for BET)
Mae Jemison African American astronaut Mae Jemison, left, smiles as suit technician Sharon McDougle performs an unpressurized and pressurized leak check on her spacsuit prior to the STS-47 Spacelab-J mission on the shuttle Endeavour, at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, September 12, 1992. (Photo by NASA/Interim Archives/Getty Images) (Interim Archives/Getty Images)
Mae Jemison LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 28: Mae Jemison, Nichelle Nichols, Ronke Olabisi and David Lau arrives for Nichelle Nichols' 85th Birthday Celebration held at La Piazza/The Grove on December 28, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images) (Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images)
Mae Jemison (Original Caption) Houston, Texas: Mae C. Jemison (L), 30, a Los Angeles doctor who is the first black female named to the astronaut corps says "I'm not afraid of being in the program. I have confidence that what things can be done to correct problems have been done and NASA will continue to work to achieve a good safety record." (Bettmann/Bettmann Archive)
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