Helms, Susan Jane (1958- )

US astronaut. By 2001 she had made five space shuttle flights, logging over 5,000 hours in space, with one space walk of 8 hours and 56 minutes, a world record. Her fifth flight was on Discovery in March 2001 as one of the three members of the second resident crew to be transported to the International Space Station. She left NASA to return to the US Air Force in July 2002 to become chief of the Space Control Division of the Requirements Directorate of the Air Force Space Command. She was manager of a programme to develop a CF-18 flight control system simulation for the Canadian Forces when selected as an astronaut in 1990.