NAME: Mary L. Cleave (Ph.D., P.E.)
BIRTHPLACE AND DATE: Born February 5, 1947, in Southampton, New York.
EDUCATION: Graduated from Great Neck North High School, Great Neck, New York, in 1965; received a bachelor of science degree in biological sciences from Colorado State University in 1969 and a master of science in microbial ecology and a doctorate in civil and environmental engineering from Utah State University in 1975 and 1979, respectively.
ORGANIZATIONS: Member of the National Society of Professional Engineers, Tri- Beta, Sigma Xi, and Tau Beta Pi, and the Association of Space Explorers
AWARDS:
NASA Space flight Medals 1985 and 1989
Utah State University Distinguished Alumna Award, 1986
Utah State University Centennial Recognition Award, 1988
NASA Exceptional Service Medals, 1988, 1990
American Astronautical Society Flight Achievement Award, 1989
Colorado State University Honor Alumna, 1990
NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, 1994
Friend of Mongolia, 1995
NASA Engineer of the Year, 1998
EXPERIENCE: Dr. Cleave held graduate research, research phycologist, and research engineer assignments in the Ecology Center and the Utah Water Research Laboratory at Utah State University from September 1971 to June 1980. Her work included research on the productivity of the algal component of cold desert soil crusts in the Great Basin Desert south of Snowville, Utah; algal removal with intermittent sand filtration and prediction of minimum river flow necessary to maintain certain game fish; the effects of increased salinity and oil shale development on freshwater phytoplankton productivity; development of the surface impoundment assessment document and computer program (FORTRAN) for current and future processing of data from surface impoundments in Utah; an algal bioassay center; and a workshop for bioassay techniques for the Intermountain West. In conjunction with her efforts, she has published scientific papers.
NASA EXPERIENCE: Dr. Cleave started working at Johnson Space Center (JSC) when she was selected as an astronaut in May 1980, Her technical assignments at JSC have included flight software verification in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL), Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) on five space shuttle flights, Malfunctions Procedures Book, Crew Equipment Design, and a detail to the engineering Directorate as a Special Assistant for Advanced Programs in the Crew Systems and Thermal Division. She has flown two missions and has logged over 262 hours in space.
Dr. Cleave was mission specialist on the crew of STS 61-B, aboard the Shuttle Atlantis, which launched at night from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on November 26, 1985. She was the flight engineer and the primary Remote Manipulator System (RMS) operator. Her other assignments on this flight included training in rendezvous and proximity operations (Prox Ops) for on-orbit operations including testing a new Digital Auto pilot Program (DAP), crystal growth experiments, and Earth observation photography. This was the heaviest payload weight carried to orbit by the Space Shuttle to date. After completing 108 orbits of the Earth in 165 hours, Atlantis landed on Runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on December 3, 1985.
On her second flight, Dr. Cleave was mission specialist on the crew of STS-30, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, on May 4, 1989, aboard the Orbiter Atlantis. During this four day mission, she deployed the Magellan Venus exploration spacecraft, the first U.S. planetary science mission since 1978, and the first planetary probe to be deployed from the Shuttle. Magellan arrived at Venus in August 1991, and mapped the entire ground surface of this planet. In addition, she also worked on secondary payloads involving indium crystal growth, electrical storms, and Earth observation studies. As one of the designated Inflight Maintenance (IFM) crew, she replaced a shuttle computer that had failed in flight with a spare computer that was on board. Following 64 orbits of the Earth, the STS-30 mission concluded with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on May 8, 1989.
Dr. Cleave left JSC in May of 1991 to join NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland, to work in the Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes. She is working on Earth observations at GSFC because of her concerns that human activity is changing the surface of the Earth too rapidly, based on the changes she observed in the four years between her two space flights. Dr. Cleave was the Project Manager for the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), an ocean color sensor that is monitoring global marine chlorophyll a concentration. SeaWiFS launched on August 1, 1997, and is now providing global biospheric maps every 48 hours. This is the first regular global measurement of plant life, the component of our Earth system that removes carbon dioxide from our atmosphere.
In March of 2000, Dr. Cleave joined the Office of Earth Science, NASA Headquarters, as the Deputy Associate Administrator for Earth Science (Advanced Planning). In her new position, Dr. Cleave is responsible for the formulation of NASA's Earth Science activities in the post 2002 timeframe.