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STS-114 Mission Specialist Wendy Lawrence: 'Hanging 10' for Shuttle Countdown
03.07.05
In 1969, America was riding a wave at war. The West Coast was rich in youth culture. The beach was more than a place; it was a lifestyle.
Still, more than 35 years later, Wendy Lawrence, who grew up in Southern California, looks to a place beyond where the sand meets the sky as she prepares to soar into space aboard the next Shuttle.
Wendy Lawrence as a childImage to left: A young Wendy Lawrence rides a pony in this undated photo. Credit: Family photo/NASA
At 10 years old, Lawrence -- like so many young Americans -- watched from her home on a small, black-and-white television as man first walked on the moon. The ridged footprint engraved on the moon's sandy surface inspired her to set her sights higher.
"That was the moment in time that I decided I wanted to be an astronaut," Lawrence said. "It gave me a purpose; it gave me a direction in which to head."
Lawrence knew a solid education would help launch her dream of becoming an astronaut.
"I could have very easily have fallen into the 'beach bum' lifestyle," she said," but because I had been bitten by the dream of flying into space and becoming an astronaut, I stayed in school."
Following her father's footsteps as a naval aviator who flew in the Vietnam War, Lawrence went on to attend the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating with a bachelor's degree in ocean engineering in 1981. She later received her master's degree in ocean engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in 1988.
Deemed a naval aviator in 1982, Lawrence has flown more than 1,500 hours in six different types of helicopters and has made more than 800 shipboard landings.
Ten years later, she was selected out of the nation's top aviators by NASA to fly aboard the highest-flying aircraft around: the Space Shuttle. Lawrence reported to the Johnson Space Center in the summer of 1992, where she completed a year of flight training and qualified as a
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