MARY L. CLEAVE (PH.D., P.E.) 

NASA ASTRONAUT (DECEASED)

PERSONAL DATA: Born February 5, 1947, in Southampton, New York. Died on 

November 27, 2023. Her father, Dr. Howard E. Cleave, resides in Williamstown, 

Massachusetts. Her mother is deceased.

EDUCATION: Graduated from Great Neck North High School, Great Neck, New York, 

in 1965; received a bachelor of science degree in Biological Sciences from Colorado State 

University in 1969 and master of science in Microbial Ecology and a doctorate in Civil 

and Environmental Engineering from Utah State University in 1975 and 1979, 

respectively.

ORGANIZATIONS: Member of the Society for Professional Engineers, the 

Association of Space Explorers, Women in Aerospace, Tri-Beta, Sigma XI, and Tau Beta 

Pi.

EXPERIENCE: Dr. Cleave held graduate research, research phycologist, and research engineer assignments in the Ecology 

Center and the Utah Water Research Laboratory at Utah State University from September 1971 to June 1980. Her work included 

research on the productivity of the algal component of cold desert soil crusts in the Great Basin Desert south of Snowville, Utah; 

algal removal with intermittent sand filtration and prediction of minimum river flow necessary to maintain certain game fish; the 

effects of increased salinity and oil shale leachates on freshwater phytoplankton productivity; development of the Surface 

Impoundment Assessment document and computer program (FORTRAN) for current and future processing of data from surface 

impoundments in Utah; and design and implementation of an algal bioassay center and a workshop for bioassay techniques for the 

Intermountain West.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Dr. Cleave was selected as an astronaut in May 1980. Her technical assignments have included: flight 

software verification in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL); CAPCOM on five Space Shuttle flights; 

Malfunctions Procedures Book; Crew Equipment Design. A veteran of two space flights, Dr. Cleave has logged a total of 10 

days, 22 hours, 02 minutes, 24 seconds in space, orbited the earth 172 times and traveled 3.94 million miles. She was a 

mission specialist on STS 61-B (November 26 to December 3, 1985) and STS-30 (May 4-8, 1989). Dr. Cleave left JSC in May 

1991 to join NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. She worked in the Laboratory for Hydrospheric 

Processes as the Project Manager for SeaWiFS (Sea-viewing, Wide-Field-of-view-Sensor), an ocean color sensor which is 

monitoring vegetation globally. Dr. Cleave next served as Deputy Associate Administrator (Advanced Planning), Office of Earth 

Science, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Dr. Cleave retired from NASA in February 2007.

SPACE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE: STS-61B Atlantis (Nov. 26 to Dec. 3, 1985) launched at night from the Kennedy Space 

Center, Florida, and returned to land on Runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base, California. During the mission, the crew 

deployed the MORELOS-B, AUSSAT II, and SATCOM K-2 communications satellites, conducted 2 six-hour spacewalks to 

demonstrate space station construction techniques with the EASE/ACCESS experiments, operated the Continuous Flow 

Electrophoresis (CFES) experiment for McDonnell Douglas and a Getaway Special (GAS) container for Telesat, Canada, 

conducted several Mexican Payload Specialist Experiments for the Mexican Government, and tested the Orbiter Experiments 

Digital Autopilot (OEX DAP). This was the heaviest payload weight carried to orbit by the Space Shuttle to date. Mission 

duration was 165 hours, 4 minutes, 49 seconds.

STS-30 Atlantis (May 4-8, 1989) was a four day mission during which the crew successfully deployed the Magellan Venusexploration spacecraft, the first U.S. planetary science mission launched since 1978, and the first planetary probe to be deployed 

from the Shuttle. Magellan arrived at Venus in August 1990 and mapped over 95% of the surface of Venus. Magellan has been 

one of NASA’s most successful scientific missions providing valuable information about the Venetian atmosphere and magnetic 

field. In addition, the crew also worked on secondary payloads involving Indium crystal growth, electrical storm, and earth 

observation studies. Mission duration was 96 hours, 57 minutes, 35 seconds. 

FEBRUARY 2007

National Aeronautics and

Space Administration

Biographical Data

 Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center

 Houston, Texas 77058