Former Falcon Nichole Stilwell Named NASA Astronaut Candidate
12/7/2021 11:03:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Ayers was a four-year letterwinner on the Falcons' volleyball team.
HOUSTON, Texas – Former Air Force volleyball player Maj Nichole (Stilwell) Ayers was named one of the NASA's 10 new astronaut candidates yesterday (Dec. 6) at Ellington Field in Houston. Ayers was selected from a field of more than 12,000 applicants to 'represent the United States and work for humanity's benefit in space'.
Ayers, a native of Divide, Colo., who graduated from the Academy in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and a minor in Russian, added a master's degree in computational and applied mathematics from Rice University, where she focused on computational fluid dynamics and, specifically, modeling incompressible fluid flow. An experienced combat aviator, Ayers has more than 1150 hours in total flight time in the T-38 and F-22 Raptor, and more than 200 combat hours in the F-22 in support of Operation Inherent Resolve and Spartan Shield, and. One of the few women currently flying the F-22, Ayers led the first-ever all-woman formation of the aircraft in combat in 2019.
As a middle blocker on the Falcons' volleyball team (2007-10), Ayers claimed MVP honors in 2009, a CoSIDA Academic All-District citation in 2008, and was a four-time Mountain West Scholar-Athlete and academic all-conference selection. As a junior, she also became the program's first player in six years to garner a MW Athlete of the Week award., She played in a (then) Air Force Division I record 397 sets and is still ranked on the program's DI Top 10 in hitting (fourth: .213), total blocks (sixth: 245), assisted blocks (seventh: 205) and solo blocks (eighth: 40).
Ayers and her fellow astronaut candidates will report for duty at Johnson Space Center in January to begin two years of training. According to the official NASA release, "astronaut candidate training falls into five major categories: operating and maintaining the International Space Station's complex systems, training for spacewalks, developing complex robotics skills, safely operating a T-38 training jet, and Russian language skills. Upon completion, they could be assigned to missions that involve performing research aboard the space station, launching from American soil on spacecraft built by commercial companies, as well as deep space missions to destinations including the Moon on NASA's Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket.
Ayers, a native of Divide, Colo., who graduated from the Academy in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and a minor in Russian, added a master's degree in computational and applied mathematics from Rice University, where she focused on computational fluid dynamics and, specifically, modeling incompressible fluid flow. An experienced combat aviator, Ayers has more than 1150 hours in total flight time in the T-38 and F-22 Raptor, and more than 200 combat hours in the F-22 in support of Operation Inherent Resolve and Spartan Shield, and. One of the few women currently flying the F-22, Ayers led the first-ever all-woman formation of the aircraft in combat in 2019.
As a middle blocker on the Falcons' volleyball team (2007-10), Ayers claimed MVP honors in 2009, a CoSIDA Academic All-District citation in 2008, and was a four-time Mountain West Scholar-Athlete and academic all-conference selection. As a junior, she also became the program's first player in six years to garner a MW Athlete of the Week award., She played in a (then) Air Force Division I record 397 sets and is still ranked on the program's DI Top 10 in hitting (fourth: .213), total blocks (sixth: 245), assisted blocks (seventh: 205) and solo blocks (eighth: 40).
Ayers and her fellow astronaut candidates will report for duty at Johnson Space Center in January to begin two years of training. According to the official NASA release, "astronaut candidate training falls into five major categories: operating and maintaining the International Space Station's complex systems, training for spacewalks, developing complex robotics skills, safely operating a T-38 training jet, and Russian language skills. Upon completion, they could be assigned to missions that involve performing research aboard the space station, launching from American soil on spacecraft built by commercial companies, as well as deep space missions to destinations including the Moon on NASA's Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket.
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