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Shannon Matilda Wells Lucid (born January 14, 1943) is an American astronaut who holds the record for the longest duration stay in space by a woman. She has flown in space five times including a prolonged mission aboard the Mir space station. Lucid was born in Shanghai, China, to Baptist missionary parents Oscar and Myrtle Wells, but grew up in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She attended the University of Oklahoma and obtained a Ph.D. in biochemistry from that school in 1973. She was selected to the NASA astronaut corps in 1978. Lucid's first space flight was in June 1985 on Space Shuttle Discovery's mission STS-51-G. She also flew on shuttle missions STS-34 in 1989, STS-43 in 1991, and STS-58 in 1993. Lucid is best known for her fifth spaceflight, when she spent 188 days in space, from March 22 to September 26, 1996, including 179 days aboard Mir, the Russian space station. Both to and from Mir, she travelled on Space Shuttle Atlantis. Her stay on Mir was not expected to last so long but her return was delayed twice, extending her stay by about six weeks. During the mission she performed numerous life science and physical science experiments. As a result of her time aboard Mir, she held the record for the most hours in orbit by a non-Russian, and still holds the record for most hours in orbit by any woman. From 2002-2003, Lucid served as the Chief Scientist of NASA. In 2005, Lucid was capsule communicator (capcom) for STS-114. Lucid was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in December 1996, the 10th astronaut to be given that honor.
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