Mary L. Cleave

Mary Cleave was an American engineer and NASA astronaut who also led NASA science. Born in Southampton, New York, in 1947, she studied biological sciences at Colorado State University and earned her master's degree and doctorate at Utah State University, where she researched freshwater and desert-soil algae. NASA selected her as an astronaut in May 1980. She flew twice as a mission specialist, on STS-61-B in 1985 and STS-30 in 1989, the mission that deployed the Magellan probe to Venus, and logged just under 11 days in space. She then moved to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to manage the SeaWiFS ocean colour sensor, and from 2005 to 2007 served as Associate Administrator of the Science Mission Directorate. She died in 2023.