Ltg susan helms biography

General Helms was commissioned from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1980.
Susan Jane Helms (born February 26, 1958) is a retired United States Air Force lieutenant general and NASA astronaut.
As a Flight Test Engineer, Helms flew in 30 different types of U.S. and Canadian military aircraft.

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Lieutenant General Susan J. Helms, USAF (Ret.), was elected to the Board of Trustees of The Aerospace Corporation on March 9, 2017.

Helms graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1980, and was in the first class to admit women into the cadet corps. She served as an F-15 and F-16 weapons separation engineer, and as an assistant professor in the Department of Aeronautics of the U.S. Air Force Academy. Helms was then selected to attend the USAF Test Pilot School Flight Test Engineer Course. Upon graduation as a Distinguished Graduate, she served as project officer on the CF-18 as an exchange officer with the Canadian Air Force at the Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment, Cold Lake, Alberta.

In January 1990, then-Major Helms became a NASA astronaut and in 1993, became the first U.S. military woman in space. She flew on five human spaceflight missions, including a tour as a member of the International Space Station Expedition 2 crew. Helms logged 211 days in space and accomplished a spacewalk of eight hours, 56 minutes, a world record that stands today.

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Lieutenant General Susan J. Helms

Former Commander, Joint Functional Component Command for Space, US Strategic Command, and 14th Air Force, Air Force Space Command
Former Commander, 45th Space Wing, Cape Canaveral, FL
Former NASA Astronaut
Former Air Force Flight Test Engineer

Lieutenant General Susan J. Helms, United States Air Force (USAF) (Ret.), is currently an independent consultant and the Principal of Orbital Visions, LLC. She has served on several boards, including the Board of Trustees for The Aerospace Corporation, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

General Helms has almost thirty-six years of military service in the USAF. In her last assignment, she was Commander of the 14th Air Force, Air Force Space Command and Commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Space, US Strategic Command at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. As the leader of the USAF’s operational space component, General Helms led more than 20,500 personnel responsible for providing missile warning, space superiority, space situational awareness, satelli

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Susan Helms Lt. Gen (Ret.)

Susan Helms is an explorer and risk-taker with a lifetime of first accomplishments for women. A retired Air Force lieutenant general (LTG) and astronaut, Helms was the first military woman in space and holds the world record for the longest spacewalk (eight hours, 56 minutes). She was a member of the first Air Force Academy class which included women (Class of 1980), and as a USAF Flight Test Engineer, flew on over 30 types of aircraft (including the F-15, F-16 and CF-18 fighters). As a NASA Astronaut, she is a five-time space flyer, and was the first woman to serve on the International Space Station (ISS).

LTG Helms graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1980 with a BS in Aeronautical Engineering. She earned her MS in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University in 1985, and was a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Test Pilot School. From 1990 to 2002, as a NASA Astronaut, she logged 211 days in space, including her 167-day mission on the ISS.

Subsequent to her tour at NASA, she was reassigned in 2002 to USAF Space Command in Colorado