Margaret Rhea Seddon - NASA Experience

NASA Experience

Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in January 1978, Dr. Seddon became an astronaut in August 1979. Her work at NASA was in a variety of areas, including Orbiter and payload software, Space Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory, Flight Data File, Shuttle medical kit and checklist, launch and landing rescue helicopter physician, support crew member for STS-6, crew equipment, membership on NASA's Aerospace Medical Advisory Committee, Technical Assistant to the Director of Flight Crew Operations, and Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) in the Mission Control Center.

She was Assistant to the Director of Flight Crew Operations for Shuttle/Mir Payloads. A three-flight veteran with over 722 hours in space, Dr. Seddon was a mission specialist on STS-51D (1985) and STS-40 (1991), and was the payload commander on STS-58 (1993). In September 1996, she was detailed by NASA to Vanderbilt University Medical School in Nashville, Tennessee. She assisted in the preparation of cardiovascular experiments which flew aboard Space Shuttle Columbia on the Neurolab Spacelab flight in April 1998. Dr. Seddon retired from NASA in November 1997. She is now the assistant Chief Medical Officer of the Vanderbilt Medical Group in Nashville, Tennessee.