By Chuck Hustmyre
(Continued)
In 1994, Nowak became a test pilot and logged more than 1,500 flight hours in 30 types of aircraft. As a Navy test pilot, Nowak was a member of one of the most elite clubs of aviators in the country, but the lure of space still drew her. There was an even more elite club she wanted to join.
There are only about 100 NASA astronauts. All of the applicants to the program are highly qualified. People who aren't qualified don't bother to apply. Of those who do, less than one in a hundred makes the cut. Those who make it are the elite of the elite, the nation's best and brightest. Serious movies like The Right Stuff have captured the level of excellence that these astronauts represent in American society.
In 1996, Nowak joined that super elite club. She became an astronaut. She and her son and her husband, who had left the Navy and gone to work for a NASA contractor, moved to Houston, home of NASA's manned spaceflight operations and the Mission Control Center.
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| Lisa Marie Nowak |
In 2001, Lisa and Richard had twin girls. Somehow she managed to balance the grueling schedule of an astronaut with that of a wife and mother to three children.
It took 10 years of hard work, but in July 2006, Nowak made it into space. She was one of two women on that mission to blast off in the space shuttle Discovery. Dubbed the "robochicks," Nowak and the other female astronaut operated the shuttle's robotic arm during three space walks.
Free fall
After her space shuttle mission, Nowak's career was at its zenith, but back on earth, her personal life was falling apart.
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