NASA Career
Kavandi was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in December 1994 and reported to the Johnson Space Center in March 1995. Following an initial year of training, she was assigned to the Payloads and Habitability Branch where she supported payload integration for the International Space Station. Kavandi served as a mission specialist on STS-91 (June 2–12, 1998), the 9th and final Shuttle-Mir docking mission, concluding the joint U.S./Russian Phase 1 program. Following the mission she worked as a CAPCOM (spacecraft communicator) in NASA’s Mission Control Center. On her second mission, she served aboard STS-99 (February 11–22, 2000), the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which mapped more than 47 million miles of the Earth’s land surface to provide data for a highly accurate three-dimensional topographical map.
Kavandi subsequently worked in the Robotics Branch, where she trained on both the shuttle and space station robotic manipulator systems. On her most recent mission, she served aboard STS-104/ISS Assembly Flight 7A (July 12–24, 2001) on the tenth mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle crew installed the joint airlock “Quest” and conducted joint operations with the Expedition 2 crew. Kavandi had trained in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory for spacewalking, but she did not take a spacewalk during STS-104.
Following her last mission, Kavandi again served as lead for the Payloads and Habitability Branch, then as the Branch Chief for the International Space Station (ISS). She was responsible for the training, operations, safety, and habitability of crews on board the ISS, as well as the hardware and software development and design reviews. She was also responsible for the scientific payloads that the ISS crews operate on orbit and for coordination between international partners for visiting vehicles and associated operations. In 2005, Kavandi accepted a position as Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office and served in that position until February 2008. Following that assignment, she became Deputy Director, Flight Crew Operations, and is currently Director, Flight Crew Operations Johnson Space Center.
A three flight veteran, Kavandi has logged over 33 days in space, traveling over 13.1 million miles in 535 Earth orbits.
Read more about this topic: Janet L. Kavandi
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