American astronaut Janice Voss died yesterday of breast cancer.

Janice Voss was born on October 8, 1956 in South Bend, Indiana. Her education includes a Bachelor of Science at Purdue University in 1975, a master of science degree in electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977 and a doctorate in aeronautics / astronautics at MIT in 1987.

Janice Voss started working for NASA in 1973 at the Johnson Space Center. Over the years she held various positions and in 1990 she was selected to become an astronaut in the Space Shuttle program.

The first space mission for Janice Voss was the STS-57 on the Endeavour in 1993 and included the recovery of the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) with the Space Shuttle’s robotic arm, a spacewalk and various scientific experiments in the first flight of the Spacehab module.

The second space mission for Janice Voss was the STS-63 on the Discovery in 1995 and included the rendezvous with the Russian space station MIR, the deployment and subsequent recovery of the platform Spartan-204 (Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy) for the detection the ultraviolet rays.

The third space mission for Janice Voss was the STS-83 on the Columbia in 1997 but it had to be interrupted after less than four days due to problems with one of the Space Shuttle generators.

The fourth space mission for Janice Voss was the STS-94 on the Columbia in 1997 with the aim of completing the previous mission and various experiments in microgravity.

The fifth space mission for Janice Voss was the STS-99 on the Endeavour in 2000 during which they carried out the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), an international enterprise with the purpose of obtaining a digital elevation model to generate the most complete high-resolution digital topographi of over 47 million miles of Earth’s surface.

In the following years, Janice Voss has held other roles within NASA contributing in various ways to other space missions. She’s remembered for her positive outlook and her determination. Throughout her life she also worked to encourage students to study science.