Navy CDR Laurel Clark, Submariner and Astronaut

Since 02-06-03

Laurel Clark, Formal

Selected by NASA in April 1996, Laurel Clark, shown here, will also serve as mission specialist. After completing two years of training and evaluation, she was qualified for flight assignment as a mission specialist. From July 1997 to August 2000, she worked in the Astronaut Office Payloads/Habitability Branch. She is part of the Red Team

Mission specialist Laurel Clark

‘Whenever I do get to look out, it is glorious. Even the stars have a special brightness.’

E-mail sent Friday, January 31, 2003 from Columbia

 HELLO FROM ABOVE our magnificent planet Earth. The perspective is truly awe-inspiring. This is a terrific mission and we are very busy doing science round the clock. Just getting a moment to type e-mail is precious so this will be short, and distributed to many who I know and love.
       I have seen some incredible sights: lightning spreading over the Pacific, the Aurora Australis lighting up the entire visible horizon with the cityglow of Australia below, the crescent moon setting over the limb of the Earth, the vast plains of Africa and the dunes on Cape Horn, rivers breaking through tall mountain passes, the scars of humanity, the continuous line of life extending from North America, through Central America and into South America, a crescent moon setting over the limb of our blue planet. Mount Fuji looks life a small bump from up here, but it does stand out as a very distinct landmark.
        Magically, the very first day we flew over Lake Michigan and I saw Wind Point (Wis.) clearly. Haven’t been so lucky since. Every orbit we go over a slightly different part of the Earth. Of course, much of the time I’m working back in Spacehab and don’t see any of it. Whenever I do get to look out, it is glorious. Even the stars have a special brightness.
       I have seen my ’friend’ Orion several times. Taking photos of the earth is a real challenge, but a steep learning curve. I think I have finally gotten some beautiful shots the last 2 days. Keeping my fingers crossed that they’re in sharp focus.
       My near vision has gotten a little worse up here so you may have seen pics/video of me wearing glasses. I feel blessed to be here representing our country and carrying out the research of scientists around the world. All of the experiments have accomplished most of their goals despite the inevitable hiccups that occur when such a complicated undertaking is undertaken. Some experiments have even done extra science. A few are finished and one is just getting started today.
       The food is great and I am feeling very comfortable in this new, totally different environment. It still takes a while to eat as gravity doesn’t help pull food down your esophagus. It is also a constant challenge to stay adequately hydrated. Since our body fluids are shifted toward our heads our sense of thirst is almost nonexistent.
       Thanks to many of you who have supported me and my adventures throughout the years. This was definitely one to beat all. I hope you could feel the positive energy that beamed to the whole planet as we glided over our shared planet.
       
       Love to all, Laurel

PERSONNEL:

Navy Cmdr. (Dr.) Laurel B. Clark was born in Iowa, but considered Racine, Wis., to be her hometown. She was married with one child. She received her bachelor of science degree in zoology in 1983 and doctorate in medicine in 1987, both from the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

During medical school, Clark did active duty training with the Diving Medicine Department at the Naval Experimental Diving Unit, Panama City, Fla., in March 1987. After completing medical school, Clark underwent postgraduate medical education in Pediatrics at the Naval Hospital Bethesda, Md. In 1989, she completed Navy undersea medical officer training at the Naval Undersea Medical Institute in Groton, Conn., and diving medical officer training at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City.

She was then assigned as the Submarine Squadron Fourteen Medical Department Head in Holy Loch, Scotland. During that assignment, she dove with U.S. Navy divers and Naval Special Warfare Unit Two Seals and performed numerous medical evacuations from submarines.

Clark also was designated as a Naval flight surgeon. She was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz. She made numerous deployments, including one overseas to the Western Pacific, practiced medicine in austere environments and flew on multiple aircraft.

Prior to her selection as an astronaut candidate, she served as a flight surgeon for the Naval Flight Officer advanced training squadron in Pensacola, Fla.

The Columbia mission was her first space flight.

By ROBERT A. HAMILTON
Day Staff Writer
Published on 2/2/2003

When he took over command of Submarine Squadron 14 in 1991, Capt. Ronald D. Gumbert's medical officer was a woman, one of the first to qualify as a diving medical officer.

The young Midwesterner dived with Navy Seals, arranged medical evacuations from submarines, and inspected the boats before every deployment to make sure all health standards were maintained for the Groton-based crews.

"She was a leader in every sense of the word," Gumbert said Saturday. "She wanted to be there, she wanted to be recognized for what she could do, and she gave 100 percent all the time. She recognized there were still some hard and fast lines, but she pushed them as much as she could."

The woman doctor was CDR Laurel Blair Salton Clark, one of seven NASA astronauts killed when the shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry Saturday morning.

Clark was a pioneer, as one of the first women ever to pass the physically and mentally grueling undersea medical officer training in Groton, and then going on to earn the dolphins that designated her a submarine medical officer.

"You can still have difficulties getting along if you come in with the attitude, 'I'm going to have difficulties,'" Gumbert said. "She came in with the attitude, 'I'm going to get the job done, and I'm going to do it to the best of my abilities.' And she did it. She was just one of the squadron staff."

Capt. Wayne A. Peters, the former chief of staff for Submarine Group Two at the Groton base, agreed. He was commanding the USS George C. Marshall in the early 1990s when Clark came aboard as part of a Tactical Readiness Evaluation team, as the crew came off a 60-day patrol. Though there has been considerable debate about whether women should serve on submarines, Peters said he had no problem accepting Clark as a fellow officer. "I viewed her as a Naval officer coming aboard my ship to do a job, and she did it well," Peters said. "There was no finer person."

At one point during the inspection he got a few minutes to just chat with her, and he recalls her interest in space even at that time. He said they talked about their favorite hiking trails in the hills around the submarine base at Holy Loch in Scotland. Gumbert said he recalls Clark as a runner in top-notch physical condition, and she would never shrink from any task. He said they lost touch with each other when the squadron was disbanded and the Navy departed from the base at Holy Loch in Scotland.

"She clearly had her own path, and nothing was going to make her veer off," Gumbert said. "It absolutely fits that she would go after the space program. That's the kind of person she was."

Clark was born March 11, 1961, in Ames, Iowa, but grew up in Racine, Wis., and considered that her hometown. She did her undergraduate work at the University of Wisconsin, then earned her M.D. from the School of Medicine there.

In 1987, while still attending medical school, she earned a commission and was trained at the Diving Medicine Department at the Naval Experimental Diving Unit.

Following some postgraduate work in pediatrics at the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Md., she reported to the Naval Submarine Base in Groton to begin the diving medical officer program at the Naval Undersea Medical Institute, or NUMI.

That program consists of nine weeks of intensive physical training, a radiation health course, and a shortened version of the Submarine Officer Basic Course offered at Naval Submarine School at the base. After completing that portion of the course, she transferred to the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City, Fla., for dive training, then back to Groton for the final classroom work at NUMI.

In an interview just before the mission, Clark said she was bringing mementos from NUMI, the Bethesda Naval Hospital and the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center on the flight, in tribute to the training she had received.

Her first assignment was to Squadron 14, which included five ballistic missile submarines that were berthed at Holy Loch, Scotland, though the crews were based in Groton and flew back and forth.

"The squadron was pretty much all male when she arrived, and that was going to be a challenge in and of itself," Gumbert said. "It showed what she was like, that she was willing to break the stereotypes. And she did a marvelous job, whether working with submarine crews to get them ready for inspection or working on medical problems. She was just one of the submariners - a very, very positive person, wonderful to be around." Clark and her husband, Navy Capt. Jonathan B. Clark, a flight surgeon, met in Scotland and lived in Houston. They have one child.

Returning to the United States, she headed in a different direction, volunteering for six months of aeromedical training and an assignment as Flight Surgeon for Marine Aircraft Group 13 and later for the Naval Flight Officer Advanced Training Squadron.

In 1996, she was one of nine Navy officers, in a class that included LCDR William S. McCool and CDR David M. Brown, both of whom died with her on the Columbia. Gumbert said while the shuttle disaster is a tragedy, Clark was the kind of person who realizes that she is putting herself at risk for some type of greater good, whether it is to protect the country in her role as a Navy officer, or to expand scientific horizons as a NASA astronaut.

"People like her are dedicated to their jobs, and they know they are risking their lives," Gumbert said. "But they wouldn't have it any other way."

       
LAUREL CLARK, 41 Mission Specialist; Racine, Wis.

As thrilled as he was to attend the launch, 8-year-old Iain Clark didn’t want his mother going into space. “He wanted to know why Daddy couldn’t go up in space instead of Mommy,” says Laurel Clark’s old schoolmate Matthew Solberg. The fact is, she never set out to be an astronaut. She wanted to be a pediatrician. But she came from a family of nine children and stepchildren, and medical school was expensive. She joined the Navy “purely for financial reasons,” she later recalled; it was the only way she could think of to pay the bills. After earning her M.D., she served a tour as an undersea medical officer. She was about to begin training as a flight surgeon when she applied to NASA, almost on a whim but with her husband’s encouragement. When they didn’t accept her on the first pass, she applied again—and this time she made it.

Her responsibility aboard the Columbia was medical and biological research. In particular she was investigating such topics as gene transfer in plants (which for some reason seems to work better in space) and the way bones lose their calcium in free fall. She took a personal interest in the latter question; osteoporosis ran in the family. Shortly before she died, she sent an e-mail to close friends and relatives. “Viewing Earth from space is spectacular,” she wrote. “I feel blessed to be here.”

Before the mission, members of the local media in Madison, Wis., asked what advice she would give to an aspiring astronaut. “Do what it is you love to do,” she said. “You’ll do a really good job at it because you love it, and you’ll be doing something that you love. Not everyone’s in luck to be an astronaut.” She loved many things. “Laurel loved nature, hiking and camping,” her 38-year-old brother, Dan Salton, told NEWSWEEK. “She loved animals and people.” She enjoyed scuba diving and parachuting. She had a special fondness for the mountains, and for Scotland, where her husband, Navy Capt. Jonathan B. Clark, proposed to her. She named her two cats Haggis and Neeps (Scottish for “turnips”). More than anything else, though, “she loved her son,” says Salton. “He’s the one we’re all thinking of.”