Dr. Mae Jemison was born on October 17, 1956 in Decatur, Alabama. Her mother Dorothy Green was an elementary school teacher, while her father was a maintenance supervisor for local charitable organization.
When Jemison was three her family moved to Chicago, Illinois. She was always dream and thought she would get to go into space. She was quoted saying, “rather than waiting around in a cornfield, waiting for E.T. to pick me up or something.” She decided to apply to be a shuttle astronaut.
Jemison was extremely interested in science, and her family supported her. She loved everything that had to do with space. She remember when the airing of the Apollo, what stood out more that and bothered her that there was no women astronauts.
Jemison admire Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She took his “I have a dream” speech as a call to action and wanted to make her dreams come true. “The best way to make dreams come true is to wake up.”
In 1983 Jemison felt that this was her chance to pursue the career she has been dreaming about, so she applied. Despite some delays after the Challenger disaster, and also having to reapply, she finally got the call she had been waiting for in 1987. Mission Specialist, Jemison flew her only 8 day space mission starting on Sept. 12 through Sept. 20, 1992.
In March of 1993, Jemison resigned for NASA. She wanted to focus more on science and technology. She founded the Jemison Group, the Dorothy Jemison Foundation and BioSentient Corp.
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