Serena with her crew before launch (NASA TV)

Dr. Serena Auñón-Chancellor was finally sitting in the spot she had dreamed of since she was a teen at Space Camp: strapped into her seat on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft waiting for launch. Serena, the Flight Engineer for NASA Expeditions 56 and 57 to the International Space Station, had been in Kazakhstan, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, for nearly 3 weeks. She spent the time getting to know her mission team, European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst and Russian Cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, while running tests and practice operations inside the Soyuz.

Serena’s ride to the ISS (NASA)

It was a clear evening on Wednesday, June 6, 2018. Serena heard the countdown begin, but couldn’t see out because of the protective shroud covering the spacecraft. The power of lift off was unlike anything she had ever experienced, as they accelerated to 1100 miles per hour. Eight minutes and 40 seconds later, Soyuz was in orbit 129 miles above Earth. Serena watched with anticipation as the shroud came off and she saw Earth from space for the first time.

Two days and 34 Earth orbits later, Soyuz arrived at the International Space Station, 254 miles above Earth. Unbuckling the restraints which held her to her seat proved she was somewhere entirely new with microgravity. She floated out of her seat and propelled herself through the hatch into her home for the next 6 months. Her crew was welcomed by the three astronauts who had been there since March.  

Floating Serena (NASA)

Serena slowly got used to floating through her day. At first, many of her attempts to move through the station ended with her turning in circles in mid-air. She started experimenting with walking on the ceiling and walls as well as the floors. She also had to adjust to spending her days and nights in small spaces with only a few windows that she couldn’t open for fresh air. Serena relied on music to keep her focused and happy. It was more fun to listen to her favorite songs than the humming of the machines and computers keeping the Space Station in orbit.

While in space, Serena conducted many medical research experiments for scientists on Earth studying cancer, osteoporosis, muscle health, and Parkinson’s disease. Sometimes, Serena herself was the experiment – she collected samples of her blood, saliva, urine and poop to bring back to Earth. This was harder than it sounds, because in space, all of these things want to float around! Astronauts lose bone mass while in space, so the samples were for osteoporosis researchers to examine for markers that could lead to early diagnosis.

Serena in the ISS lab (NASA)

Serena also experimented with algae growth to begin understanding whether future astronauts could grow food during a long missions to Mars or beyond. She didn’t spend all her time doing experiments. She had to channel her inner construction worker and help install a new sealed laboratory large enough for two astronauts called the “Life Sciences Glovebox.”

After 197 days, 3152 Earth orbits, 83.3 million miles and 250 experiments, Serena and her crew boarded the Soyuz descent module and started their trip back to Earth. They flew 60 miles away and deployed a special engine that moved them out of orbit into a 3.5 hour controlled fall to Earth. As they neared the surface, they slowed their fall by deploying a huge orange and white parachute and landed in the middle of a snowy Kazakastan field.

The Power of the Wand

Serena is a passionate ambassador for the space program, stating that “one of the most important takeaways from what the space program is doing right now is that it’s continually trying to advance human presence in space. Whatever your background is, whether it’s science, chemistry, engineering, you’re a physician, you’re in the military, get involved with your country’s space program wherever you are across the world.”

Like Serena, Alyssa Carson is planning a transition from NASA Space Camp to outer space. Alyssa traces her passion for space exploration to the “Mission to Mars” episode of the Backyardigans. She went to her first Space Camp when she was 5 and was too small to fit into the traditional light blue spacesuits. Her parents found a darker blue one in her size which earned her the callsign “NASA Blueberry.” By age 16, Alyssa became the first person to complete all 7 NASA Space Camps and earned a certification in applied astronautics. She attended several more space camps in other countries, including Canada and Turkey.

Alyssa also served as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover 10 Panel when she was 12, and gave her first TED talk at age 13. At 15, she was the youngest person accepted to the Advanced PoSSUM Space Academy at Florida Tech.  Alyssa is currently a college student at Florida Tech, studying astrobiology. Her focus two-fold: finding life on other planets and growing food on other planets so humans can live on them. She still plans to follow the Backyardigans to Mars as an astronaut!

Her Yellow Brick Road

Serena arrived at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in August 2006. She initially joined NASA as a flight surgeon. For one of her early assignments, she spent nine months in Russia as the doctor for International Space Station crew members. If the astronauts had health issues during their stay in space, they contacted Serena, who managed their care from Earth.

(NASA)

Serena was selected to be a part of the 20th NASA astronaut class in June 2009. There were 3500 applicants, and only 14 were chosen. They began astronaut training that August. Serena and her classmates took courses in space station systems and robotics and spent hours in virtual reality simulators and models. The simulators prepared them for what to do when things go wrong, like how to propel back to the spaceship with a backpack thruster if their tether breaks during a spacewalk.

Serena at the Natural Buoyancy Lab (NASA)

The models included a life size International Space Station where Serena was able to conduct experiments in the sample lab and learn to use its robotic arm. Serena also practiced spacewalks underwater in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, a 60 foot deep pool where she wore a special suit to simulate the weightlessness of space.

Astronaut training included many “actual reality” experiences as well. Serena flew T-38 jets to practice piloting skills. To prepare for the possibility that their spacecraft could land off course, Serena and her classmates spent three days doing land survival training in Maine. They were dropped in the wilderness with a map, compass, poncho, canteen, bayonet, and iodine tablets. To prepare for the possibility that the spacecraft could land in water, Serena was thrown out of a helicopter flying just above the Mediterranean Sea and left there overnight. She also got to be part of the Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) expedition. Beginning in late 2010, she spent 2 months living on the ice, 200 nautical miles from the South Pole. ANSMET found 1200 meteorites.

Serena graduated from training in November 2011 and began the wait for a space assignment. In the meantime, she adventured below the Earth’s surface to the world’s only undersea laboratory, the Aquarius, which is located 60 feet deep in the ocean off Key Largo, Florida. Starting in June 2012, Serena operated the Deep Water submersible vehicle that brought “aquanauts” to the lab as part of NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) 16.

Serena on the NEEMO 20 mission (NASA)

Three years later, Serena was one of the aquanauts and spent 17 days on Aquarius as part of NEEMO 20. She gathered and analyzed coral samples to study how they function in different ocean depths. She also worked on preparation for upcoming Mars missions. NASA expects a 10 minute delay in communications between Earth and Mars, so the crew and mission control practiced with a delay to see how it affects work in the lab.

In early 2017, Serena got the news she was waiting for: she would be the Flight Surgeon for a NASA mission to the International Space Station.

Brains, Heart & Courage 

Serena grew up in Fort Collins, CO. Her dad, Jorge, was born in Cuba. He immigrated to the United States in 1960 when he was a child and his family had to build a new life from scratch. He studied hard to become an engineer, and later an engineering professor. Her mom, Margaret, is an author who writes mystery novels as Maggie Sefton. Serena’s parents passion for what they do inspired her to find to find something she loved and keep doing it.

Serena took her first big step on the road to space when she was 15 and enrolled in NASA’s Space Camp. She spent a week of her summer at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama at the Space Academy. The campers were assigned different roles to learn what astronauts do. They experienced some astronaut training exercises, did engineering challenges, flew simulators, and ended with a simulated space mission where Serena served as the Flight Surgeon. Serena came home with a new goal: becoming an astronaut and exploring space for real.

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Just the Facts

• Serena was born on April 9, 1976 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
• Serena was the second female American-Hispanic NASA astronaut. Dr. Ellen Ochoa was the first. 
• Serena’s education includes a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from George Washington University, a M.D. from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center, and completed internal medicine and aerospace medicine residencies, plus a M.S. in Public Health at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
• Serena is married to Jeff Chancellor and has one stepdaughter named Serafina. 
• One of Serena’s space experiments involved endothelial cells, which line the blood vessels and control the flow in and out of body tissue. These cells are critical to treating cancer and heart disease, but researchers struggle because the cells don’t behave in a lab the way they do in the body. This makes it hard to know if new drugs that work in the lab will work in a human. Serena cultured these cells in orbit and discovered that microgravity makes the cells act more like they do inside the body, which in turn opens up new ways to more accurately test cancer and heart medicines.
• NASA Astronaut Annie McClain arrived at the ISS 16 days before Serena left, marking the first time that all American astronauts in space were women.
• Serena is a licensed amateur radio operator and uses the call sign KG5TMT. She had fun making ham radio contacts with people on earth while she was in orbit.
• Serena won the Julian E. Ward Award from The Society of United States Air Force Surgeons for her “trend-setting contributions to spaceflight participant clinical care and her extensive community service.”
• Serena is a certified CapCom for the International Space Station crew. CapCom is short for Capsule Communication, and are astronauts on Earth who are the primary communicators with the astronauts in space.  She also was the lead Capcom for two cargo resupply missions to the ISS (SpaceX-4 and SpaceX-8).
• Serena now directs health care for the International Space Station Operations branch and the Commercial Crew Branch. 
• Serena is working on the Artemis project, which plans to return astronauts to the moon by 2024. The goal of Artemis is to build an outpost on the moon that can serve as a way station for future trips to Mars. NASA needs research on the effects of long stays in space before Mars because it will take 6-9 months to get there. The radiation exposure in deep space is extreme so the spacecraft will need strong shields to prevent radiation sickness. Serena is researching what this means for astronauts’ short and long term health.
• Serena was inducted into the Space Camp Hall of Fame in 2017.

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