Megan McArthur, the NASA astronaut who became the first woman to pilot a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, recently concluded a space a career spanning more than two decades. A trailblazer, the veteran of two spaceflights logged 213 days in space. Besides this, she was the last person to “touch” the Hubble Space Telescope with the space shuttle’s robotic arm.
A look at Megan McArthur’s space missions over the years
Launched as pilot of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission in April 2021, McArthur marked her second spaceflight with this mission. Another milestone that she achieved with this space exploration was her first long duration stay aboard the International Space Station.
“During the 200-day mission, she served as a flight engineer for Expeditions 65/66, conducting a wide array of scientific experiments in human health, materials sciences, and robotics to advance exploration of the Moon under Artemis and prepare to send American astronauts to Mars,” NASA said in a press release dated August 29.
She made her first spaceflight in 2009 with the fifth and final servicing mission to Hubble which was STS-125, aboard the space shuttle Atlantis.
Megan McArthur’s contributions have helped shape the future of human space exploration. As STS-125 mission specialist, Megan McArthur’s lead the team through five spacewalks to update and repair Hubble after its first 19 years in space.
Besides space flight missions, McArthur is noted for her contributions within NASA in various technical and leadership roles. A veteran of two spaceflights, McArthur served as the chief science officer at Space Center Houston, NASA Johnson’s official visitor center, since 2022.
Megan McArthur’s qualifications
Born in Honolulu and brought up as a “Navy kid,” McArthur obtained Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles. She secured a doctorate in oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.
Megan McArthur’s personal life
She married former NASA astronaut Robert Behnken and the couple have a son from the marriage. Behnken, who retired from NASA in 2022, has spent over 708 hours in space and flew aboard SpaceX Dragon 2 in 2020 as a part of the spacecraft’s first crewed mission.
In 2019, she became the deputy division chief of the Astronaut Office, supporting astronaut training, development, and ongoing spaceflight operations. She also served as the assistant director of flight operations for the International Space Station Program starting in 2017.
