Anna Lee Fisher - NASA Career

NASA Career

Fisher was selected as an astronaut candidate in January 1978. In August 1979, she completed her training and evaluation period, making her eligible for assignment as a mission specialist on space shuttle flight crews.

Following the one-year basic training program, Fisher's early NASA assignments (pre-STS-1 through STS-4) included the following:

• The development and testing of the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) – commonly called the shuttle's "robotic arm"
• The development and testing of payload bay door contingency spacewalk procedures, the extra-small spacesuit, and contingency repair procedures;
• Verification of flight software at the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) – in that capacity she reviewed test requirements and procedures for ascent, on-orbit, and RMS software verification – and served as a crew evaluator for verification and development testing for STS-2, STS-3 and STS-4.

For STS-5 through STS-7, Fisher supported vehicle integrated testing and payload testing at Kennedy Space Center. In addition, Fisher supported each Orbital Flight Test (STS 1-4) launch and landing (at either a prime or backup site) as a physician in the rescue helicopters, and provided both medical and operational inputs to the development of rescue procedures. Fisher was a CAPCOM for STS-9.

She would eventually fly in late 1984 on STS-51-A aboard Discovery. The mission deployed two satellites, and recovered two others whose PAM kick motors failed to ignite.