Maj Susan Helms, USAF, became the first US military woman in space during a flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-54) and the first woman to inhabit the International Space Station in 2001.
Helms is a retired United States Air Force lieutenant general and NASA astronaut. She was the commander, 14th Air Force (Air Forces Strategic), and commander, Joint Functional Component Command for Space at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Helms was a crew member on five Space Shuttle missions and was a resident of the International Space Station (ISS) for over five months in 2001.
Helms officially retired from the United States Air Force in 2014. She was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2011 and received the AFHF Gen. Carl “Tooey” Spaatz Award for lifetime achievement in the USAF in 2023.