Dr. Jan Davis played a key role in verifying the Hubble Space Telescope’s design and had a distinguished career as a three-time spaceflight veteran.

Dr. Davis began her career at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center as an aerospace engineer, leading the structural analysis team for the Hubble Space Telescope and working on the redesign of the space shuttle’s solid rocket booster external tank attach ring.

Selected as an astronaut in June 1987, Dr. Davis initially provided technical support for Shuttle payloads and served as a CAPCOM in Mission Control for seven missions. She flew as a mission specialist on STS-47 in 1992 and STS-60 in 1994 and was the payload commander on STS-85 in 1997, logging over 673 hours in space. After her flights, she took on various leadership roles at NASA, such as the Astronaut Office representative for the Remote Manipulator System and Chairperson of the NASA Education Working Group.

Dr. Davis later served as Director of the Human Exploration and Development of Space Independent Assurance Office at NASA Headquarters and held various leadership positions at Marshall Space Flight Center. In 2005, she retired from NASA and joined Jacobs Sverdrup Engineering, where she continues her work on NASA projects. She holds one patent and has authored several technical papers.