Capt. Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper commissioned through NJROTC at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and became a naval salvage officer. She completed several tours of duty as an engineering duty officer in the area of ship maintenance and repair, qualified as a surface warfare officer aboard USS Grapple (ARS 53), and served at NAVSEA as the underwater ship husbandry operations officer for the supervisor of salvage and diving in 1994. A qualified and experienced salvage officer, her major salvage projects include de-stranding the tanker Exxon Houston off the coast of Barbers Point, on Oahu, Hawaii, and developing the plan for the Peruvian Navy salvage of the Peruvian submarine Pacocha. She was inducted into the Women Diver’s Hall of Fame in 2007. She is also a former NASA astronaut. She flew on two Space Shuttle missions, STS-115 and STS-126, during which she completed five spacewalks totaling 33 hours and 42 minutes. Stefanyshyn-Piper retired from NASA in 2009 to return to the U.S. Navy and went on to command Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division and Southwest Regional Maintenance Center. She retired from the Navy in 2015 after 30 years of service.

Last Updated: 29 March 2023