Joan Higginbotham

Joan Elizabeth Higginbotham is an American engineer and a former NASA astronaut. She flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-116 as a mission specialist. Higginbotham was born in Chicago, Illinois, and attended Whitney Young Magnet High School, graduating in 1982. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 1987, and a Masters of Management Science (1992) and Masters in Space Systems (1996... more

Joan Elizabeth Higginbotham is an American engineer and a former NASA astronaut. She flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-116 as a mission specialist. Higginbotham was born in Chicago, Illinois, and attended Whitney Young Magnet High School, graduating in 1982. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 1987, and a Masters of Management Science (1992) and Masters in Space Systems (1996) both from the Florida Institute of Technology. She is the third African American woman to go into space, after Mae Jemison and Stephanie Wilson. Higginbotham is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and The Links, Incorporated. Higginbotham began her career in 1987 at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, as a Payload Electrical Engineer in the Electrical and Telecommunications Systems Division. Within six months she became the lead for the Orbiter Experiments (OEX) on OV-102, the Space Shuttle Columbia. She later worked on the Shuttle... less