NASA astronaut Janice Voss, one of six women to fly in space at least five times, passed away overnight after losing a battle with cancer. According to the Associated Press, the 55-year-old space shuttle veteran had flown to space five times in seven years in the 1990s.
“During the last few years, Janice continued to lead our office’s efforts to provide the best possible procedures to crews operation experiments on the station today,” chief astronaut Peggy Whitson said in a statement released by NASA. “Even more than Janice’s professional contributions, we will miss her positive outlook on the world and her determination to make all things better.”
Beginning her career in NASA as a teenager, Voss was selected to serve as mission specialist on five space shuttle missions, one of which was the only repeat flight in the shuttle program’s 30-year history. During her five missions in the 1990s, Voss flew with the first commercial laboratory, met with fellow astronauts on Russia’s Mir space station and helped to create what is now the most complete digital topographic map of the Earth. That project mapped more than 47 million square miles of the Earth’s surface, the AP said.
In total, Voss logged more than 49 days in space during her career, and traveled about 18.8 million miles. Her missions give her a tied record for the most spaceflights completed by a woman.
She spent the last years of her life serving as the payload lead in the astronaut office’s space station branch at the Johnson Space Center, Space.com said.
