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Judith Arlene Resnik (April 5, 1949 – January
28, 1986) was an American engineer and a NASA astronaut who died in the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger during the
launch of mission STS-51-L.
Resnik was the second American woman and the second Jewish
person in space, logging 145 hours in orbit. She was a graduate of
Carnegie Mellon University and had a Ph.D. in electrical
engineering from the University of Maryland. The IEEE Judith Resnik
Award for space engineering is named in her honor.
Life
Resnik was born in Akron, Ohio and attended Hebrew school. Judith A. Resnik
has one brother, Charles, four years younger. Her parents were
Marvin, an optometrist, and Sara Resnik. A graduate of
Firestone High School in 1966,
she excelled in math and played classical piano. While at Firestone
she achieved a perfect SAT score,
the sole female to do so that year. She received a B.S. in electrical engineering from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University
in 1970, the year she married fellow student Michael Oldak. They
divorced in 1974 because Michael wanted children; Judith wanted to
focus on her career. Resnik then earned a Ph.D. in electrical
engineering in 1977 at the University of
Maryland. After graduation from Carnegie Mellon, she was
employed at RCA as a design
engineer, and later worked with various NASA projects contracted to
the company.
While working toward her doctorate, Resnik was affiliated with
the National Institutes of
Health as a biomedical engineer. Later, she was a systems
engineer with Xerox
Corporation.
Astronaut
Resnik was recruited into the astronaut program January 1978 by
actress Nichelle Nichols, who was working as a
recruiter for NASA.[1].
Resnik's first space flight was as a mission specialist on the maiden voyage of Discovery, from August
to September 1984. She was likewise a mission
specialist aboard Challenger for STS-51-L.[2][3][4] Resnik
was the first American Jewish astronaut to go into
space, the first Jewish woman, and only the second Jew to go to
space (after Boris
Volynov of the Soviet Union).[5]
Legacy
For people accustomed to seeing images of astronauts in space,
Dr. Resnik's first space mission still caused some notoriety. Not
only was she one of the first women in space, but in zero
gravity, she displayed a halo of flowing locks, a startling
sight to many viewers who were accustomed to seeing closely cropped
men. During the flight, she was acclaimed for her weightless
acrobatics and a playful sense of humor, once holding a sign
reading "Hi Dad" up to the camera, and displaying a sticker on her
flight locker that advertised her crush on actor Tom Selleck.[6]
Since her death, Resnik has been awarded many posthumous honors.
Numerous public buildings and facilities have been named after her,
mostly schools and educational facilities, including a dormitory at
her alma mater, Carnegie Mellon.
The Judith Resnik Award was established in 1986 by the
Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The award is presented
to an individual or team in recognition of outstanding
contributions to space engineering.[7]
Resnik was honored by the naming of lunar crater Resnik, located
within the Apollo impact basin on the far side of the Moon.
Resnik has been portrayed in numerous works of fiction,
including the 1990 made for TV movie
Challenger.
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