[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 135 (Friday, December 8, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2159]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              HONORING CHICAGO ASTRONAUT JOAN HIGGINBOTHAM

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. RAHM EMANUEL

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, December 7, 2006

  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Astronaut Joan 
Higginbotham. Higginbotham is a member of the crew on the Space Shuttle 
Discovery that is scheduled to launch tonight from NASA's Kennedy Space 
Center. Additionally, she is a fellow Chicagoan, and I wish her the 
best of luck as she prepares for her first mission, STS 116.
  Higginbotham graduated from Chicago's Whitney Young High School in 
1982, and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1987. She will 
be the third African-American woman aboard a NASA mission, and she and 
her fellow astronaut Robert Curbeam will make history this week on STS 
116, the first Space Shuttle mission with two African-American 
astronauts.
  Higginbotham previously worked as a payload engineer at the John F. 
Kennedy Space Center while also earning two master's degrees from the 
Florida Institute of Technology.
  As a Mission Specialist on board Discovery, Higginbotham's 
responsibilities will include a complete rewiring of the International 
Space Station's power supply. She will also have the responsibility of 
operating the robotic arm to deploy several satellites and to direct 
payload transfers.
  Higginbotham will be joined by mission commander Mark Polansky, as 
well as Robert Curbeam, Sunita Williams, Nicholas Patrick, William 
Oefelein, and Christer Fuglesang from the European Space Agency, who is 
the first Swedish astronaut.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing my fellow 
Chicagoan as well as her fellow astronauts, and to wish them all the 
best on their launch tonight and their 12-day mission.

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