Turning the pages back... November 10, 1996 (11/09/03)

Turning the pages back...

November 10, 1996

In November of 1996, readers of The Weekly learned that one of their own, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, a member of the Ukrainian community in the Twin Cities, was chosen for the NASA astronauts training program. By April 1998 she had completed training and evaluation, and was awaiting a flight assignment.

As noted by Dr. Michael Kozak, a Minneapolis-area Ukrainian community leader who wrote the first story about the future astronaut for The Weekly, Ms. Stefanyshyn-Piper, daughter of Adelheid and the late Michael Stefanyshyn, was born and grew up in the Twin Cities. She was an active member of the Ukrainian Catholic Youth Organization and was also a group leader in Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization. She completed Ukrainian studies at St. Constantine Church Saturday School, and was a member of the Zahrava Folk Dance Ensemble and the singing group Troyandy. As Ms. Stefanyshyn-Piper's mother is a German immigrant, she cultivated her German roots, also.

She received a scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering. She joined the Navy, where she achieved the rank of lieutenant commander. According to an article published in St. Paul Pioneer Press (August 16, 1996), Ms. Stefanyshyn-Piper is also a diver and an experienced salvage officer, and was with the Navy's Naval Sea System Command before being accepted into the NASA Space Training Program.

In an interview with a Navy publication, Ms. Stefanyshyn-Piper stated that she joined the space program for the same reason she became a diver. She was quoted as saying: "I was looking for something challenging that would broaden my horizons." She said her work as a diver gave her a chance to work in a foreign environment, adding that "space is the ultimate foreign environment, and it really is the final frontier."

Cmdr. Stefanyshyn-Piper is married to fellow astronaut Glenn A. Piper, and they have one son. In February of 2002 she was assigned as a mission specialist to the shuttle mission then scheduled for April of this year (designated STS-115). Since the Columbia tragedy, that mission was postponed and awaits re-scheduling.

Source: "Stefanyshyn-Piper chosen for astronaut program," by Dr. Michael J. Kozak, The Ukrainian Weekly, November 10, 1996, Vol. LXIV, No. 45; "Astronaut Stefanyshyn-Piper named to shuttle mission in 2003," The Ukrainian Weekly, March 17, 2002, Vol. LXX, No. 11; www.nasa.gov.

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