Late Homer City astronaut and IUP graduate receives space mission name
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Dr. Patricia Hilliard Robertson, a 1985 graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, devoted her life not only to medicine but to the advancement of human spaceflight.
She never made it into space herself, dying months shy of a mission.
On Wednesday, the space industry became the latest to honor the memory of the 38-year-old NASA astronaut and Homer City native by naming an upcoming Cygnus spacecraft mission for her.
Northrop Grumman, the Falls Church, Va.-based company that built the spacecraft, made the announcement Wednesday afternoon.
Cygnus spacecraft are cargo vessels that supply equipment, science experiments, and supplies to the International Space Station, according to the company’s website. Its 20th mission will be in her name — the S.S. Patricia “Patty” Hilliard Robertson.
“It’s our tradition to name each Cygnus spacecraft after a significant figure in human spaceflight,” officials with the company said in a statement. “Dr. Robertson was selected in honor of her accomplishments as a space medicine fellow, flight instructor and pilot, and her service as a NASA astronaut.”
Robertson is a 1980 graduate of Homer-Center High School. She studied biology at IUP. She came within months of making it into space.
To this day, she is referred to on the university’s website as “IUP’s astronaut.”
She died on May 24, 2001, in Houston of injuries from the crash of a private plane at Wolfe Air Park in Manvel, Texas.
“Patty was scheduled to fly to the space station in 2002 but tragically lost her life,” said Douglas Hurley, a former NASA astronaut and official with Northrop Grumman. “Members of Patty’s astronaut class brought a photo of her on their space shuttle mission, along with her NASA name tag, as a tribute to her,” he said. “At just 38 years old at the time of her death, she had already achieved so much, and her legacy in medicine, aviation and space exploration continues to inspire generations that have followed.”
After graduating from IUP and finishing a medical degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1989, Dr. Hilliard Robertson fulfilled the requirements for a three-year residency in family medicine and was certified by the American Board of Family Practice, according to IUP.
She went further in medicine by being chosen for a two-year fellowship in Space Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch and NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, university officials said.
She joined NASA’s Flight Medicine Clinic at the Johnson Space Center in 1997, prior to her selection as an astronaut.
Dr. Hilliard Robertson was a member of NASA’s astronaut class of 1998 and was assigned as a crew support astronaut for the Expedition Two crew on board the International Space Station.
To fulfill those duties, she worked as an interface between the Mission Control Center Flight Control Team and the Astronaut Office on issues related to the Expedition Two crew, officials at IUP said. Along with other astronauts, she coordinated activities on the ground for the three crew members in space.
In addition to being a medical doctor, Dr. Hilliard Robertson was a multi-engine rated flight instructor and an avid aerobatic pilot with more than 1,500 hours of flight time, according to the university.
The Patricia Hilliard Robertson Center for Aviation Medicine at the Indiana Regional Medical Center was named in her honor in 2009.
At IUP, she is honored through the Dr. Patricia Hilliard Robertson Memorial Scholarship for Outstanding Female Science Student. It is presented during IUP’s Research Appreciation Week’s Women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Summit.
The IUP Libraries is honoring Dr. Hilliard Robertson with a display about her life and work, and the IUP Special Collections and Archives hosts the Dr. Patricia Hilliard Robertson Collection.
A number of Hilliard Robertson’s family, including her mother, Ilse Hilliard, remain in the Indiana area. Ilse Hilliard worked as an IUP faculty member in the department of sociology and anthropology from 1985 to 2001. She could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.