Selection Another doctor at Harbor General was Mark Mecikalski, who followed the
American space program. At lunch in June 1977 he informed Bill, who was now Sims's fiancé, that the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was conducting a selection of a new group of astronauts and recruiting doctors. Bill had Sims paged over the hospital loudspeaker system. They both applied, although they agreed that Sims had the better chance, due to her background in chemistry as well as medicine. They had three weeks to assemble the required documents and submit their applications. Sims posted hers the day before the deadline. NASA received 8,079 applications, and chose 208 for further screening. Bill also received a call from NASA, and in November he was one of the ninth group of applicants to be interviewed. This group included
Judith Resnik, who worked for
Xerox in nearby
El Segundo, California, and Resnik and the Fishers became friends. In January 1978, Fisher received a call from
George Abbey informing her that she had been selected as part of
NASA Astronaut Group 8, and would commence on July 5. At the same time, he informed Bill that he had not been selected. Bill was the only unsuccessful applicant to be told of his rejection by Abbey; the job of informing unsuccessful candidates was normally delegated. Fisher was interviewed on television by
Connie Chung. That night Bill took Fisher and Resnik, who had also been selected, out to dinner to celebrate. Bill and Fisher moved to Houston, where they bought a house in
Clear Lake City. The new job involved a considerable pay cut; from earning about $50,000 per year () as a surgical
resident, she dropped down to a government salary of around $23,000 a year (). "It didn't matter what the pay was", she told
People magazine. "To be an astronaut, I was willing to pay them."
Training Group 8's name for itself was "TFNG". The abbreviation was deliberately ambiguous; for public purposes, it stood for "Thirty-Five New Guys", but within the group itself, it was known to stand for the military phrase, "
the fucking new guy", used to denote newcomers to a
military unit. Officially, they were
astronaut candidates; they would not become fully-fledged astronauts until their training was complete. Much of the first eight months of their training was in the classroom. Because there were so many of them, the TFNGs did not fit easily into the existing classrooms, so they were split into two groups, red and blue, led by
Rick Hauck and
John Fabian respectively. Fisher was placed in the blue group. Water survival training was conducted with the
3613th Combat Crew Training Squadron at
Homestead Air Force Base in
Florida and
parasail training at
Vance Air Force Base in
Oklahoma. |alt=Underwater Astronaut candidate training included learning to fly NASA's
T-38 Talon jet aircraft.
Mission specialist astronaut candidates like Fisher did not have to qualify as pilots, only ride in the back seat and handle an emergency if the pilot became incapacitated. Fellow TFNGs
James Buchli and
Dale Gardner, who were
naval flight officers, drew up a training syllabus for mission specialist astronaut candidates like Fisher who had no aviation experience. Each was assigned to a pilot astronaut or astronaut candidate as an instructor; Fisher's was astronaut
Ken Mattingly. The instructors took pride in the progress of their trainees, and attempted to convey some of their own love of flying. Fisher took private flying lessons, and soloed for the first time in November 1978. To keep in shape she would do a run each day, lifted weights in the gym, and played
racquetball. NASA had already, on August 1, issued a call for another intake of astronaut candidates. Bill applied again. He had earned a
Master of Science degree in engineering from the
University of Houston and taken flying lessons to make himself more attractive to the program. This time he was accepted, and became part of
NASA Astronaut Group 9. This made them the first married couple to be selected for astronaut training. She attended meetings of the astronaut spouses' club so the wives of her fellow astronauts would not feel threatened by her working closely with their husbands. The public announcement of the selection of Fisher and the other members of the crew of the STS-41-G mission was made on September 21, 1983. The crew was commanded by Hauck, who had piloted the STS-7 mission, and also included
David M. Walker as the pilot, Fisher as the flight engineer (MS2), and fellow mission specialists Gardner and
Joseph P. Allen. STS-41-G was tentatively scheduled for August 1, 1984. As the flight engineer, Fisher sat in the seat behind the commander and the pilot and assisted them during ascent, descent and landing. Before her flight, Fisher wanted to perform
capsule communicator (CAPCOM) duties. Hauck was unenthusiastic about this—he wanted his crew to be focused on training for the upcoming mission—but he relented, Since the other two mission specialists were preoccupied with the EVAs, Fisher would also assist Hauck and Walker as the mission's flight engineer. had six stars: five for the crew and one representing her daughter Kristin.|alt=Refer to caption Fisher was asked to design the insignia for this mission. Her design had six stars: five for the crew and one representing Kristin. Reporters asked her how she felt about leaving her child behind. She pointed out that men on her flight were also leaving their children behind; Once
Discovery was in orbit, Fisher performed the checkout of the RMS. Like many astronauts, she felt the effects of
space adaptation syndrome and did not feel better until the third day. On the second day the crew deployed
Telesat Canada's
Anik D2, an HS 376 communications satellite, using a spring-ejection mechanism. This was the first time that a Space Shuttle deployed a satellite at night. The following day they deployed the
U.S. Navy's
Leasat 1 satellite using the
Frisbee-style mechanism that had been used to deploy Leasat 2 successfully on the
STS-41-D mission. Lloyd's of London awarded the crew its silver medal for those who "by extraordinary exertions have contributed to the preservation of property from perils of all kind." Fisher was named "national mother of the year" by the Father's Day/Mother's Day Council, along with
Martha Layne Collins,
Clara Hale, Louisa Kennedy,
Susan Lucci,
Sarah Palfrey,
Madge Sinclair and
Frederica Von Stade.
Post-Challenger In December 1984, Fisher was assigned to mission
STS-61-C, a satellite deployment mission. The mission was scheduled for December 1985 on
Columbia and would deploy the Westar 7 communications satellite for
Western Union and the Satcom KU-2 communications satellite for
RCA. It was commanded by
Michael L. Coats. This time
John E. Blaha was the pilot and Thagard and
Robert C. Springer were fellow mission specialist. Fisher would reprise her role of flight engineer. The launch date slipped and the crew was reassigned to mission
STS-61-H, which was scheduled to fly, with a different payload, in June 1986. That mission was canceled in the wake of the
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in January 1986.
Wilbur Ross (center) and Chargé d'Affaires in Brasilia
William W. Popp in 2019 Following the disaster, Fisher worked as the Deputy of the Mission Development Branch of the Astronaut Office, and as the astronaut office representative for Flight Data File issues. In that capacity, she served as the crew representative on the Crew Procedures Change Board. She served on the Astronaut Selection Board for
NASA Astronaut Group 12 in 1987, and in the Space Station Support Office, where she worked part-time in the Space Station Operations Branch. In this role she was the crew representative supporting space station development in the areas of training, operations concepts, and the health maintenance facility. During an appearance at UCLA, Fisher mentioned that she had completed all the coursework required for a master's degree in chemistry, but students on the
PhD track usually bypass their masters. Staff at UCLA checked their records, and Fisher was awarded her Master of Science degree in chemistry in 1987.
Leave of absence A second daughter, Kara Lynne, was born in 1989. Kara had the rare distinction of being born after both parents had flown in space. From 1989 to 1995, Fisher took an extended leave from NASA to raise her family. There was no intention to take multiple years off; she took a year at a time. The Fishers divorced in 2000.
Return for the
Exploration Flight Test-1 mission is being prepared When Fisher returned to the Astronaut Office in 1995, she was assigned to the Operations Planning Branch to work on the procedures and training issues in support of the
International Space Station (ISS). She was chief of the Operations Planning Branch from June 1997 to June 1998, and deputy chief for operations training in the Space Station Branch from June 1998 to June 1999. In these roles, she oversaw Astronaut Office inputs to the space station program regarding operations, procedures and training. She then served as chief of the Space Station Branch. In that capacity, she was involved in issues regarding the design, development, and testing of the ISS hardware. Fisher also served as the Astronaut Office representative on numerous Space Station Program Boards and Multilateral Boards. She was later assigned to the Shuttle Branch and worked on technical assignments within that branch. In 2012, she briefly made news when, during the landing of
Discovery at Washington's
Dulles Airport, where it was being retired to the
Smithsonian Institution, she advised an aspiring astronaut to study Russian. At least one commentator suggested this was a veiled criticism of the US government's lack of funding for the space program. Fisher was a CAPCOM from January 2011 to August 2013, and was the lead CAPCOM for ISS
Expedition 33. As a management astronaut, she was involved in the development of the
flight instruments display for the
Orion project until her retirement in April 2017. ==Public appearances==