Topic: Sandra Magnus

Sandra Hall Magnus (born October 30, 1964) is an American engineer and a NASA astronaut. She returned to Earth with the crew of STS-119 Discovery on March 28, 2009 after having spent 134 days in orbit. She is also a licensed amateur radio operator with the call sign KE5FYE.

Magnus was born and raised in Belleville, Illinois. She earned degrees in physics and electrical engineering from the University of Missouri–Rolla (now known as the Missouri University of Science and Technology) before earning a PhD in materials science and engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1996. Research for her dissertation, entitled "An Investigation of the relationship between the thermochemistry and emission behavior of thermionic cathodes based on the BaO-Sc2O3-WO3 ternary system," was supported by a fellowship from the NASA Lewis Research Center

During the 1980s, Magnus worked on stealth aircraft design as an engineer for McDonnell Douglas. She worked on the propulsion system for the A-12 Avenger II until the project was canceled by the Navy in 1991.