SHELBURNE — Astronaut Catherine “Cady” Coleman has seen the world from space, but from now on she’ll see it mostly from her hilltop home in Shelburne.
On her Facebook and Twitter pages, Coleman announced Thursday that, after 33 years at NASA and in the Air Force, she is leaving the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
“NASA will always be my family, but I’m thrilled to be spending more time with my husband Josh and our son Jamey in Shelburne — just in time for Jamey’s last few years in high school,” Coleman wrote. “It’s a scary but exciting leap to take … but I guess I’ve always loved these kinds of leaps!”
As an astronaut, Coleman has spent at least 180 days in space, accumulated over two Space Shuttle missions and a six-month expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). In 2010, she launched and landed aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and she acted as the lead robotics and science officer during her International Space Station tenure. While on board the ISS, 220 miles above the earth, Coleman played the flute from outer space, joining Jethro Tull flutist Ian Anderson in a performance.
Later, back on Earth, Coleman coached actress Sandra Bullock in preparation for Bullock’s role as a stranded astronaut in the movie, “Gravity.”
In a 1999 space mission, Coleman was the lead mission specialist for the deployment of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. The mission deployed an X-ray telescope that is still sending data about black holes, exploding stars and quasars.
In her social network post, Coleman thanked her family and friends for their support. “What’s next? There is so much happening both here on Earth and in space, we’ll have to see,” she wrote. “I’ll always be exploring, but I am thrilled to be doing it from a new launch pad, a little closer to home.”