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Birth
- Location: Decatur, Alabama
- Youngest of 3 (Charles and Alda Jemison)
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Beginning of Career
- Attended Morgan Park High School and graduated at age 16.
- Graduated Stanford University with degrees in chemical engineering and Afro-American studies.
- Later received Doctor of Medicine degree in 1981
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Mid Life
- interned at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center in 1982, and worked as a general practitioner f In Los Angeles, she entered private practice and took graduate level engineering courses.
- The flights of Sally Ride and Guion Bluford in 1983 inspired Jemison to apply to the astronaut program. Jemison first applied to NASA's astronaut training program in October 1985, but NASA postponed selection of new candidates after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.
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Career Resolution
- September 28, 1989, she was selected to join the STS-47 crew as Mission Specialist 4 and was also designated Science Mission Specialist, a new astronaut role being tested by NASA to focus on scientific experiments. Jemison flew her only space mission from September 12 to 20, 1992, on STS-47 a cooperative mission between the United States and Japan, as well as the 50th shuttle mission. Jemison logged 190 hours, 30 minutes, 23 seconds in space and orbited the earth 127 times
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Post- NASA
After her return to Earth, Jemison resigned from NASA in March 1993 with the intention of starting her own company. NASA training manager and author Homer Hickam, who had trained Jemison for her flight, later expressed some regret that she had departed.
Jemison also founded the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence and named the foundation in honor of her mother. Founded in 1994, camps have been held at Dartmouth College, Colorado School of Mines, Choate Rosemary Hall and other sites.