Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper ’80 Landed Among the Stars

Reprinted from Traditions, Winter 2019-20
April 3, 2020

There’s that old cliche — “Reach for the moon; even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper ’80 once had big dreams of being a fighter pilot, but she missed. Instead, she landed quite literally among the stars.

Stefanyshyn-Piper’s path to NASA began in ninth grade at Derham Hall, when she was given the opportunity to self-study Algebra I and Geometry math courses, which put her on track for accelerated Calculus courses in college.

When she was accepted to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), she realized that she would struggle to pay the tuition. She applied for and received a Naval ROTC scholarship to finance her mechanical engineering degree. After her freshman year at MIT, her goal was to become a Navy pilot. However, she failed the eye test, which led her to Navy Dive School and doing ship repairs underwater instead.

That twist of fate served her well when she applied for NASA. While her application was rejected the first time, as most are, the second time around she was able to explain how relevant her diving experience was to the work astronauts do in zero gravity.

Stefanyshyn-Piper went to space twice, in 2006 and 2008, which gave her a fresh perspective on Earth’s beauty.

“When you’re up there, you can see the curvature of the Earth, and you can see that beyond the thin layer of atmosphere, everything is just black. It really brings into focus that this planet is all we have,” she reflected. “I know how much it takes to get just six humans into space, so the chances of a sci-fi future where all of humanity blasts off, I don’t think that’s going to happen. We need to take care of what we have.”

Since her retirement from the U.S. Navy in 2015, Stefanyshyn-Piper has spent her time mentoring, and speaking in schools and volunteering with Soroptimist International of Oak Harbor, focusing on girls.

“If I can convince just one student to stay in school, to study something they wouldn’t have, to try a little harder, that’s worth it,” she said.

An engineer through-and-through, Stefanyshyn-Piper still shares a sense of wonder at the universe.

“As much as you can use science to explain why and how things work, you always come back to the beginning,” she said. “That’s where faith and God comes in. You can explain everything — up to a certain point.”