Megan McArthur, first woman to pilot SpaceX Dragon, retires from NASA after more than two decades

Some explorers person focused connected alpine heights. Others connected polar extremes.

Megan McArthur is 1 of the elite fewer who tin accidental she’s piloted some submarines and spacecraft, exploring expanses from the water level to debased Earth orbit, looking down connected the satellite from 250 miles above.

Now McArthur, 54, is retiring from NASA, wherever she has served for much than 2 decades arsenic an astronaut and elder person astatine the agency’s Johnson Space Center successful Houston.

Emily Carney, a abstraction historian, described McArthur arsenic a pioneer, 1 of the archetypal 100 women to alert successful space, and idiosyncratic with a “magnificent career.”

She was the archetypal pistillate to aviator a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and the past idiosyncratic to “touch” the Hubble Space Telescope with the abstraction shuttle’s robotic arm. She has logged 213 days successful orbit — 200 connected the International Space Station successful 2021, and 13 days aboard the abstraction shuttle Atlantis successful 2009, arsenic portion of NASA’s last formation to transportation retired repairs and upgrades to Hubble.

“Her contributions person helped signifier the aboriginal of quality abstraction exploration, and we are incredibly grateful for her service,” said Steve Koerner, acting Johnson Space Center director.

McArthur besides built and piloted a human-powered submarine arsenic an undergraduate astatine UCLA, wherever she majored successful aerospace engineering. She received a PhD successful oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography astatine UC San Diego successful 2002 — which she completed portion grooming to service arsenic a NASA astronaut.

“That was a truly benignant of a brainsick clip successful my life, erstwhile I got the telephone telephone to inquire me: Did I privation to travel to enactment arsenic an astronaut, arsenic an astronaut candidate? Of people I said yes,” she said, recalling the telephone telephone she received from NASA successful 2000, successful an interrogation from the International Space Station successful 2021.

Her thesis advisor, Bill Hodgkiss, prof of applied water subject astatine Scripps’ Marine Physical Laboratory, said she is the lone pupil helium ever had who became an astronaut.

He said she built models to recognize the creation of the water floor, utilizing sound. Her specialty was water level acoustics. Although determination is small evident overlap betwixt her PhD enactment and what she has done arsenic an astronaut, the skills she honed person surely contributed to her palmy career.

“Few radical get to bash for the remainder of their beingness what they did arsenic a postgraduate student,” helium said. “What you truly larn is however to tackle analyzable probe problems. And being trained arsenic an engineering-oriented PhD pupil is simply a large happening for an astronaut due to the fact that of the caller problems they’re going to encounter.”

McArthur, who was calved successful Honolulu, archetypal became enamored of spaceflight arsenic a teen surviving successful Mountain View, Calif., wherever her begetter was stationed astatine Moffett Field Naval Air Station.

“My dada was a aviator there, and we utilized to spot astronauts travel for training, for shuttle landings ... and that’s benignant of erstwhile I archetypal realized this is simply a existent occupation that existent radical have,” she told a radical of Scripps Institute of Oceanography students from the abstraction station.

She said it was her acquisition gathering a human-powered submarine arsenic an undergraduate that got her reasoning astir a vocation successful the oceans.

“Exploring the oceans, is, successful a batch of ways, akin to exploring space,” she said. There are a batch of akin operational concepts, specified arsenic “you person to person each of the instrumentality that you request to bash your work. You person to beryllium capable to hole the things that break, and you person to, you know, person a program and past accommodate erstwhile things don’t enactment retired rather according to that plan.”

Carney, the historian, said McArthur joined the astronaut corps astatine a clip erstwhile admitting women into the ranks was becoming much common.

“They were flying connected the International Space Station, they had done a batch connected Hubble, they were an adjacent spouse successful spaceflight,” she said. “The abstraction shuttle programme truly helped to democratize spaceflight.”

She’s worried, however, that the Trump administration, with its cutbacks to the abstraction programme and objections to diversity, could reverse the gains women person made, arsenic good arsenic those of Black, Asian and different number professionals.

She said she is hopeful that commercialized abstraction opportunities with companies specified arsenic Virgin Galactic volition antagonistic that.

McArthur is the main subject serviceman astatine Space Center Houston, wherever she present works to beforehand spaceflight and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) probe and acquisition to visitors astatine the center.

“It was an unthinkable privilege to service arsenic a NASA astronaut, moving with scientists from astir the satellite connected cutting-edge probe that continues to person a lasting interaction present connected Earth and prepares humanity for aboriginal exploration astatine the satellite and Mars,” McArthur said successful a statement.

“Seeing our beauteous satellite from abstraction makes it truthful wide however fragile and precious our location is, and however captious it is that we support it. I americium grateful I had the accidental to lend to this work, and I’m excited to ticker our superb engineers and scientists astatine NASA conquer caller challenges and prosecute further technological discoveries for the payment of all.”