Former Falcon Nichole (Stilwell) Ayers Joins NASA Astronaut Corps
3/6/2024 3:36:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
HOUSTON, Texas – Air Force volleyball alumnae Maj Nichole (Stilwell) Ayers officially became a member of NASA's 23rd Astronaut Class on Tuesday, March 5, as she graduated from astronaut candidate school at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Ayers, along with her fellow classmates, received their silver astronaut pins after two years of rigorous training, and are now some of the 48 active members in the astronaut corps.
Ayers, who was selected as an astronaut candidate in December 2021, is part of the first astronaut class to graduate from NASA since it began assigning new crews. Her class, which included 10 Americans and two members of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in an agreement between NASA and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center, will be eligible for flight assignments to the space station, the moon under the Artemis program, and Mars.
Ayers, 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 of flight time in the T-38 and F-22 Raptor. In addition to collecting more than 200 combat hours in support of Operation Inherent Resolve and Spartan Shield, Ayers led the first-ever all-woman formation of the F-22 in combat in 2019.
As a middle blocker on Air Force's volleyball team from 2007-2010, the native of Divide, Colo., claimed MVP honors in 2009 and a CoSIDA Academic All-District citation in 2008. She was a four-time Mountain West Scholar-Athlete and academic all-conference selection and, during her junior season, became the first Falcon in six years to garner a MW Athlete of the Week citation. She played in a (then) Air Force Division I record 397 sets and is still ranked among the program's DI career Top 10 in hitting (.213, fifth), total blocks (245, eighth), assisted blocks (205, ninth) and solo blocks (40, tenth).
Ayers, who was selected as an astronaut candidate in December 2021, is part of the first astronaut class to graduate from NASA since it began assigning new crews. Her class, which included 10 Americans and two members of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in an agreement between NASA and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center, will be eligible for flight assignments to the space station, the moon under the Artemis program, and Mars.
Ayers, 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 of flight time in the T-38 and F-22 Raptor. In addition to collecting more than 200 combat hours in support of Operation Inherent Resolve and Spartan Shield, Ayers led the first-ever all-woman formation of the F-22 in combat in 2019.
As a middle blocker on Air Force's volleyball team from 2007-2010, the native of Divide, Colo., claimed MVP honors in 2009 and a CoSIDA Academic All-District citation in 2008. She was a four-time Mountain West Scholar-Athlete and academic all-conference selection and, during her junior season, became the first Falcon in six years to garner a MW Athlete of the Week citation. She played in a (then) Air Force Division I record 397 sets and is still ranked among the program's DI career Top 10 in hitting (.213, fifth), total blocks (245, eighth), assisted blocks (205, ninth) and solo blocks (40, tenth).
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