When Dr. Jan Davis was growing up in Huntsville, Ala., in the 1960s, there simply were no women astronauts. So it wasn't something UAH alumna ever considered becoming. But in 1978, when the first female candidates were selected to be part of NASA's Astronaut Corps, Dr. Davis began to rethink her career path. And in 1984, while working as an aerospace engineer at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and attending UAH, she applied to be an astronaut. "I think having a graduate degree - and my pilot's license at that point - it just seemed like I might have the qualifications, so I might as well give it a shot," she says. "I knew it was a long shot but I realized it could happen. It was a possibility." Needless to say, Dr. Davis was not chosen from among the 5,000 people who applied that year, but she was selected three years later. And since becoming an astronaut in 1987, she has logged more than 673 hours in space over three flights: STS-47 (1992), STS-60 (1994), and STS-85 (1997).