Serena Maria Auñón-Chancellor (born April 9, 1976) is an American physician, engineer, and NASA astronaut. She visited the ISS as a flight engineer for

Expedition 56 Expedition 56 was the 56th expedition to the International Space Station, which began on June 3, 2018, upon the departure of Soyuz MS-07. Andrew Feustel, Oleg Artemyev, and Richard R. Arnold were transferred from Expedition 55, with Andrew Feust ...

/ 57 on the International Space Station.

Education

Auñón-Chancellor attended Poudre High School in Fort Collins, Colorado. She holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from George Washington University, an M.D. from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) in 2001, and an M.P.H. degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in 2006. She completed a three-year residency in internal medicine at UTMB in Galveston, Texas, in 2004, and then completed an additional year as Chief Resident. She also completed an aerospace medicine residency at UTMB. She is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Aerospace Medicine.

Medical career

Auñón-Chancellor was hired by NASA as a

flight surgeon A flight surgeon is a military medical officer practicing in the clinical field of aviation medicine. Although the term "flight surgery" is considered improper by purists, it may occasionally be encountered. Flight surgeons are physicians ( MD ...

and spent over nine months in Russia supporting medical operations for International Space Station astronauts. She received the 2009 Julian E. Ward Memorial Award from the Aerospace Medical Association for her contributions to spaceflight crewmember clinical care and development of medical kits to support launch and landing in Kazakhstan.

NASA career

Auñón-Chancellor was selected as an astronaut candidate in June 2009. She completed the astronaut candidacy training program in 2011. As part of her training, she spent two months in Antarctica from 2010 to 2011 as part of the ANSMET expedition. The ANSMET expedition consisted of a 9-member systematic team and a 4-member reconnaissance team that explored new areas where future teams may go. Collectively they returned over 1200 meteorites. She served as the deputy crew surgeon for

STS-127 STS-127 ( ISS assembly flight 2J/A) was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS). It was the twenty-third flight of . The primary purpose of the STS-127 mission was to deliver and install the final two components of t ...

and

Expedition 22 Expedition 22 was the 22nd long duration crew flight to the International Space Station (ISS). This expedition began on December 1, 2009 when the Expedition 21 crew departed. For a period of 3 weeks, there were only 2 crew members; it was the fi ...

. She also serves as the deputy lead for Orion – Medical Operations.

NEEMO

In June 2012, Auñón piloted a

DeepWorker 2000 DeepWorker 2000 is a submarine vehicle developed by Nuytco Research, Ltd. It is capable of descending to a depth of 610 m (2001 ft) and remaining submerged for 12 hours. In 1999, it was deployed to the continental shelf and upper conti ...

submersible A submersible is a small watercraft designed to operate underwater. The term "submersible" is often used to differentiate from other underwater vessels known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully self-sufficient craft, capable of ind ...

as part of the NASA/NOAA NEEMO 16 underwater exploration mission off

Key Largo, Florida Key Largo is a census-designated place in Monroe County, Florida, United States, located on the island of Key Largo in the upper Florida Keys. The population was 12,447 at the 2020 census. The name comes from the Spanish ''Cayo Largo'', or "lon ...

. In July 2015, Auñón-Chancellor participated as an

aquanaut An aquanaut is any person who remains underwater, breathing at the ambient pressure for long enough for the concentration of the inert components of the breathing gas dissolved in the body tissues to reach equilibrium, in a state known as satura ...

in the NEEMO 20 crew.

Management Astronaut

Aunon-Chancellor is a Management Astronaut and covers medical issues and on-orbit support in the Astronaut Office. In January 2020, she released a study on an unnamed astronaut who had to treat their own deep vein thrombosis on the International Space Station.

Russian ISS accusations

In 2021 Russian state-owned news service TASS published accusations from an anonymous source claiming Auñón-Chancellor drilled a hole in the Soyuz spacecraft module attached to the ISS in 2018. No evidence implicating Auñón-Chancellor was given. The accusation was denied by NASA, and came during a period of increasingly poor relations between NASA and the Russian space agency following the near-disastrous incident involving Russia’s Nauka ISS module.

Research

Auñón-Chancellor's research is concerned with the medical implications of space radiation exposure, including computer modelling of the radiation environment of a crewed orbiting spacecraft.

Personal life

Auñón's father is Jorge Auñón, a Cuban exile who arrived in the United States in 1960; her mother is Margaret Auñón. Auñón-Chancellor is married to physicist Jeff Chancellor and has a step-daughter named Serafina Chancellor (from previous marriage of her husband). They currently live in League City, Texas. Auñón-Chancellor is a licensed

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communic ...

operator with the call sign of KG5TMT. She earned her Technician Class license and was granted her callsign by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on June 2, 2017. Auñón-Chancellor made random (unscheduled) ham radio contacts from the ISS, generally working morning and early afternoon Saturday (US Time) passes over the US during the final weeks of her ISS mission.

Honors and awards

Auñón-Chancellor has received the following awards and honors: * 2004 - Thomas N. and Gleaves James Award for Excellent Performance by a Third-Year Resident in Internal Medicine. * 2006 - William K. Douglas Award * 2007 - Outstanding UTMB Resident Award * 2009 - United States Air Force Flight Surgeons Julian Ward Award

References

External links

*
Spacefacts biography of Serena M. Auñón5 Things You Didn’t Know About Astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor
NASA

Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late U ...

YouTube Channel, June 5, 2018 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aunon, Serena M. 1976 births Living people American people of Cuban descent Aquanauts Physician astronauts Women astronauts NASA civilian astronauts George Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston alumni University of Texas Medical Branch alumni People from Indianapolis People from League City, Texas Amateur radio people Hispanic and Latino American scientists Hispanic and Latino American women physicians 21st-century American women scientists 21st-century American women physicians 21st-century American physicians Hispanic and Latino American aviators