Colonel in the United States Air Force, a NASA astronaut and a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions. She was selected by NASA in 1992 to become a mission specialist astronaut. Coleman logged over 500 hours in space. In 1995, she was a member of the (Space Transport System) STS-73 crew on the scientific mission USML-1 with experiments including biotechnology, combustion science and the physics of fluids. During the flight, she reported to Houston Mission Control that she had spotted an unidentified flying object. In completing her first space flight, Coleman orbited the Earth 256 times and traveled over 6 million miles. STS-93 was Coleman's second space flight in 1999. She was mission specialist in charge of placing the Chandra X-ray Observatory in orbit using the shuttle's robotic arm.