- [Jim Voss] Susan Helms' life has been dedicated to serving our nation, both as a military officer and as an astronaut.
- [Marji] During Susan's time at NASA, she had the opportunity to be on six different shuttle missions, and live on the International Space Station.
- [Gen. Kevin Chilton] Susan was the full package when it came to being an astronaut, and an officer leader in the United States Air Force.
- [Maj. Gen. Suzanne Vautrinet] She was in charge of what we call space superiority.
- [Susan's sister] To have someone like her at the helm of the difficult challenges that were facing our country, I knew we were in good hands.
[gentle piano music] - [Narrator] As strong and enduring as the Rocky Mountains they stood beside.
As visionary as the views of the grand plains they looked across, the women inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame are trailblazers, whose work has improved and enriched our lives.
They are teachers, scientists, ranchers, leaders in business, education, religion, and the arts.
Women who have been recognized for their many contributions to our state, our country, and the world.
I'm Reynelda Muse, and these are the stories of great Colorado women.
- [Marji] When the Apollo moon landing occurred, and Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon.
- [Neil] That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
- It came on close to midnight.
We had already gone to bed.
My parents decided to wake Susan up so that she could come and watch the historic event.
It sparked her imagination.
- Oh gee, that's great.
Is the lighting halfway decent?
- Yes, indeed.
They've got the flag up now, and you can see the stars and stripes.
- Some people are just good at things, and Susan was good at everything that she did.
- From the time that Susan was in the Air Force Academy, she wanted to be an astronaut, and she helped shape her military career towards becoming an astronaut.
- [Marji] Susan is really seen as an astronaut's astronaut.
- She was a wonderful, compatible crewmate.
She's a dear friend.
She's my space sister.
- Susan was the first to be promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General in the Air Force Space Command.
- Women generals are very far and few between.
She's one of that first group that made it up.
- There are not many generals in the military, and there are even fewer female generals in the military, and so she had to be a role model, and she had to be exceptional.
- Everything after two star is a congressional decision, and you have to go to Congress, and you have to be vetted personally, and individually.
When she was selected for 14th Air Force, she went through that vetting, and that is extraordinarily difficult, and she was exactly the right person.
- To the men and women of the JFCC Space, and 14th Air Force team, I feel blessed to have this privilege of command, and especially blessed to be associated with the organization of such high caliber.
I'm proud to be a part of your team, and I take the flag knowing there's no team better prepared to execute our nation's critical space operations mission for national security.
- [Jonathan] She has new skill sets that really no one else has.
- But the reason she achieved the ranks she did, and did the things that she did, it was because she was good.
- Well, I have to look to my parents as the two most important people that ended up influencing me in my life.
Not only were they great role models for me and my sisters, we also had this aspect of our lives of being part of the military.
- [Colleague] Her father was a colonel in the Air Force.
- He instilled a great sense of patriotism, and love of the military, and love of the Air Force into Susan.
- And as I watched my mom and dad have such a vibrant life in the military, I made a decision pretty early on that I was gonna do the same thing.
- Susan was a very good student.
She was always interested in space and science.
- In particular, I liked trying to understand the universe and the planets, which I guess later on came back to help me out a little bit.
But I was kind of a creative person, and engineering is a very creative application of math and science.
And so I thought, well, I wanna be an engineer for sure, and I also wanna join the military.
And so if the Air Force wants engineers in the military, boy, this is the way to go.
I think I've already got it figured out.
And I had that probably in my head around eighth grade, and I remember my dad inviting some of his coworkers over to dinner at our house one night, and they were talking about the Air Force Academy, and really talked it up.
And I said right then and there, in front of him and all of his compatriots, I said, well, that's where I wanna go.
I want to go to the Air Force Academy.
And my dad says, well, you can't.
And I said, what do you mean I can't?
He goes, well, they don't take women.
And then along comes my senior year of high school, and lo and behold, the 94th Congress saw fit to change the law.
- One day, she was reading the Sunday paper, and "Parade Magazine" had an article about how the United States Air Force Academy was opening its doors to women.
- But also mandated that women had to be admitted in the very next class, which happened to be the exact same time that I was graduating from high school.
You had to go through your congressman, or your senators, in order to get your applications in, which I did.
And just a few short months later, I ended up getting appointed to the Air Force Academy by Senator Mark Hatfield from Oregon.
- She was really excited about it, and the next thing I know, she's running excited through the halls telling all her friends, I made it, I'm in the academy, I got accepted.
- [Merri] She was in the very first class of women at the Air Force Academy.
- There were 157 of us in that first class.
When we showed up, my sense was the Air Force had bent over backwards trying to figure out how to do this right.
- So not only were the women breaking barriers, and starting something new, but the academy was learning how to bring women into an all male domain.
- One of the extraordinary things about that first group of women going to the Air Force Academy is there's a big sign at the entrance that says, "Bring me men."
- Which is astonishing as the first class enters.
That was her first day, that was her entry with the other women that were crossing a barrier, and changing the world.
- They had to reinvent things, because they had not had women's bathrooms.
They didn't know how to do women training.
They didn't know whether to keep women separate, or keep women integrated.
There were a lot of people that did not want that cultural change to happen.
- The expectation was you weren't there because you had earned it.
You were there because they had allowed women in.
As with many other things that are groundbreaking, you have to prove not just that you're good enough, but that you're better.
- I certainly did notice it, right off the bat, that there was some resistance, but we were bound and determined, I think as a group, that we were not gonna be deterred from our goal.
Because of that, our class has an extremely strong bond, as women, as the class of '80.
We called ourselves the '80s ladies.
- [Colleague] So you were a very, very small minority, but a mighty, mighty team.
- It probably didn't hurt that around 1978, while we were still cadets, NASA was picking women to fly as astronauts.
I mean, the whole world was broadly opening up to women.
- And of course it's not just about having a door open for you.
You have to go through that door, and then excel.
- Getting an advanced degree was certainly part of what was expected of Air Force engineers.
If you were accepted to be an instructor at the Air Force Academy, and you didn't have an advanced degree, then they would send you to one of the more notable schools for you to go get it, and then come back and teach at the Air Force Academy.
I went to Stanford for about 15 months, got the degree, came back, and started teaching at the Air Force Academy in 1985.
- She was an associate professor at the Air Force Academy, teaching the whole next generation about astrophysics and engineering.
- Along the way, it dawned on me that there was an age limit to applying to the test pilot school, and getting into the school, and start the test engineering training.
- Think of it as "Top Gun" for engineers that are actually creating the aircraft, and allowing them to have much better performance.
- [Susan] I was the only woman in that test pilot school class of 25.
- It's the flight test engineer who collects the data, helps run the mission from mission control on the ground, and sometimes it was required for them to fly in the back seat.
So, she was really on the leading edge of women officers in the Air Force.
- Before I even went to test pilot school, I had a number of people tell me that I was sharpening my resume for a potential astronaut application just by virtue of the fact I was going to test pilot school.
Our graduation speaker for test pilot school was Dick Covey, who was in the very first shuttle class picked of astronauts in 1978, the same class as Sally Ride.
After the graduation ceremonies were done, and things began to die down, Dick Covey came up to me and shook my hand, and he goes, "I really hope we see you in Houston sometime."
So I took that as a sign that maybe it's a good time to put in my application, which I did on the next round.
- She went through the NASA selection process, and was selected for the astronaut program in 1991.
- You may remember that in the '80s, we had the first shuttle disaster, and the NASA programs for manned spaceflight were curtailed for quite some time.
Those programs opened back up, and it opened a whole world of opportunity for not just space exploration, but for the space station, and for work internationally with partners.
- I first met Susan when she came and checked in for astronaut candidate training.
I was the, for lack of a better term, the den mother of the astronaut candidate class.
- The first year you came into NASA as an astronaut candidate was spent really learning about, not just the space shuttle, but NASA.
- There are thousands and thousands of hours of training that astronauts go through, where they have to learn the details of how to operate, maintain, fix the things that they're going to be depending on to keep themselves alive in space.
- They have to learn all of the technical knowledge about how the space shuttle operates.
Susan was very well qualified.
She worked hard, she applied herself.
- Graduated from the astronaut program in 1991, eligible for a flight assignment, and then I ended up flying in space in 1993.
- [Merry] At that time, she was unusually fast in being assigned to a flight.
- But none of the women they had selected up to that point were from the military, active duty military.
Then I became the first military woman to fly in space.
- [Control] Three, two, one, zero, and liftoff, liftoff.
- [Gen. Chilton] Launch, for one thing, going into space is probably the most thrilling experience I've ever had.
It's best described, I think, as your first rollercoaster ride.
- [Marji] She said it was the best experience that she'd ever had.
- [Susan] The first launch, in some ways, it was very, very slow, and it was very, very quick.
It was 8 1/2 minutes to get to engine cutoff.
- And then when you're on orbit, it's just bliss.
I mean, I can't describe it any other way.
- She was definitely aware when they broke through the atmosphere and moved into weightlessness.
- [Gen. Chilton] That freedom just was terrific.
If you want to go across the room, you push off the wall and fly across the room.
- The biggest revelation that Susan shared with me from her first trip was looking down on Earth, knowing that the whole Earth was one humanity, and not seeing any borders.
She wasn't able to spend a lot of time experiencing it, because NASA had them going right into tasks and duties that had to be accomplished for the mission.
- The first thing we had to do on that mission was deploy a satellite.
And it was very important to get that done on time, because if the satellite wasn't punched off, and able to deploy its own solar batteries within X number of hours, the satellite would fail.
So, all the pressure was on the very first day.
- One, two, three, now.
- [Susan] We also ended up, at the request of the Houston Science Museum, making a video called "Toys in Space."
That film would get played on NASA TV for decades.
So that's pretty cool being part of a famous movie created thanks to the smart minds at the Houston Science Museum.
- Susan flew several shuttle flights, and she flew as a mission specialist on each of those flights.
- After Susan completed her four missions, she was selected to be part of the second crew to be aboard the International Space Station.
- The Space Station was not solely a United States spacecraft.
It was several modules that were built by two nations, at that point in time, one of which was the United States, and one of which was Russia.
- It was important for Susan and and her crewmate, Jim Voss, to learn Russian before they went up on the International Space Station, because they had a crewmate who was Russian.
In fact, their commander, Yuri Usachov.
- The most difficult thing that I did, hands down, was learn to speak Russian.
A great deal of our success as crews involved being able to communicate with each other, and that meant that everybody became bilingual, as best they could, and that included Yuri.
Yuri had to learn how to speak English.
- Our training was fairly intense, and being in another language makes it very difficult.
- [Kevin] Susan had to do that immersion training, and then actually live in Star City in Russia, outside of Moscow.
- But we trained a lot in the United States.
We trained a lot in Russia.
We trained in Canada, because of the Canadian robotic arm that Susan was the first person to actually use in space.
- The time that I spent on Space Station, I would call a highlight of my life.
There was something so cool about living on a space outpost.
- [Colleague] Susan's flight was, I think, just over five months.
- To a lot of people, that sounds like a really long time, and I would just tell you, I could have stayed another six months.
There's just a litany of different tasks that always needed to be done.
We would talk about it at the breakfast table, about who is doing what.
- And you go through the day and do your work, you eat, and you sleep, and you live a normal life.
It's just in a very different environment.
- One of her many roles was to keep track of the technology.
So she actually became a Microsoft certified engineer in order to run all of the systems that needed to be run on the International Space Station.
- [Susan] It was about a 10 hour day.
Dinnertime, we'd come back together.
Yuri as the crew commander, thought it was really important that we have these collection moments together to regroup and just, you know, be human, so to speak, around the dinner table.
- They allowed time for recreational activities.
- [Susan] You could write emails to home, or you could watch a movie, or just look out the window.
That was the best of all.
- When Susan told us that she might be on the Oscars, we were very excited.
But like with many things NASA, you never really know whether or not they're going to occur.
And when the show started, as the camera zoomed into space, it zoomed into the International Space Station, and there was Susan, and Jim, and Yuri.
- Welcome aboard the International Space Station Alpha, the real 2001 Space Odyssey.
I'm Susan Helms of the second resident crew to fly aboard Alpha.
You may notice there's another guy hanging around here, and I think there's only one way to get rid of him.
So get the objection pod ready.
Ladies and gentlemen, here is your host of the 73rd Annual Academy Awards, Mr. Steve Martin.
- On the Oscars, floating in space, being broadcast from the International Space Station.
And it just still gives me goosebumps.
- In the overall multi-year choreography of assembling the space station into its final form, Jim and I were assigned to a space walk that required us to wait outside while a robotic maneuver was taking place to install a module to the outside of the space station.
- And we had to make sure that all that worked okay before we could go back inside, so we actually got to hang out for a while.
- But in the process of waiting, Jim and I ended up spending an extra hour and a half outside in vacuum, which made our space walk duration turn into the longest duration space walk in human history.
- [Jim] It was eight hours and 56 minutes long.
- And being outside of the vehicle, and in direct radiation really gives you a large dose.
When you've had the max amount of radiation, as an astronaut, you can't go up again.
You're done as an astronaut.
- When I came back from Space Station, they had my dosimeter data, and they knew how my radiation exposure had measured up.
- Susan hit that limit.
She was told that she couldn't fly on long durations flights anymore.
- You can go back and work in the command center, and do all of the engineering analysis, but you don't fly again.
And she became an astronaut to fly.
Both physically and emotionally, you have to make a decision on what's next.
- That's when I began to think about maybe now's the time for me to come back, and do what I always intended to do, which was to come back to the military.
- She was a great engineer, a great operator.
She understood space, she understood space operations, and that's what the Air Force Space Command was yearning for.
- Her first step back in the Air Force was to return to Colorado.
She went to Peterson Air Force Base.
- [Susan] Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs happens to be what I would call the mothership of military space.
I was a colonel when I came back.
- When you go up the ranks, a colonel is a fully successful rank, and a high rank.
It's a very low percentage of colonels get promoted to one-star general, a huge cut.
And when you're a general, a one-star general, it's like you're the CEO of a corporation.
You have a lot of responsibility over a huge area.
- She got her first star at Patrick Air Force Base at Cape Canaveral, and the Kennedy Space Center.
- One star was extraordinarily difficult.
Only 50% of one-stars can become a two-star.
- [Merri] She went to Omaha, Nebraska, and got her second star, where she worked for strategic command, and she spent a couple of years there.
- At a certain point, at the three and the four-star level, there are no longer promotion boards.
What happens is the president appoints you, the Senate confirms you upon the president's nomination.
And it turns out that the one job that was the highest military position to manage all Department of Defense space operations, that particular job happened to be a three-star job.
- As a three-star general, Susan commanded 14th Air Force.
- If it's space and it's operations, it is operated out of the 14th Air Force.
Everything that would be part of our strategic capability for national security is part of US strategic command, and she was brought in as the head of plans and policy.
- The job that she had was to lead the team that did the nuclear war planning, which is kind of an oxymoron, because what we were really doing was posturing our country's nuclear arsenal in a manner that we would never have to wage nuclear war.
But to do that, you have to convince the adversary that you're capable of it, and willing to do it.
- The Columbia disaster, and the loss of astronauts that were her friends was traumatic.
I think that there's probably nothing that's torn her heart out more, or took longer to recover.
This is family, this is your whole life, and gone in an instant.
[emotional music] First, there was an investigation about the accident.
And then there was another investigation.
It was called Return to Flight.
So, after you've done the investigation on what the problems were, there is a very detailed assessment with NASA, but with all the experts and the engineers as well, that makes a determination, are we ready to launch a shuttle again?
And she was selected to be part of Return to Flight.
I don't think anyone worked harder to make sure that it was gonna be perfect.
With that much pressure to return to flight, and to make NASA what it can be again, she still did not only all the research, but stood tall and strong and said, and you need to understand these things as well.
- I'll tell you what I admire Susan most for.
I admire her most for her integrity.
Part of her responsibilities and her authorities as the commander of 14th Air Force were to review court-martial cases that came up, and the decisions of the judges in those cases.
And she had certain authorities to adjust punishment.
- She's the kind of person you'd trust with any decision.
And again, she's the type who brings in all the information, gets all the best counsel, and then has full trustworthiness to make the best decision.
- It was serious business.
You took it very seriously, because you had people's lives, and their futures in your hands.
And Susan had made such a judgment.
And two United States senators questioned her judgment, and I believe for political purposes, held up her nomination to be the vice commander of Air Force Space Command.
And they went so far as to tell her if she would just change her judgment in this one particular case, they would release the hold on her getting that job.
And had she gotten that job, she certainly would've been given the opportunity to compete for a fourth star.
And Susan would not do it.
She would not do it, 'cause she has so much integrity.
- I think just like being an astronaut, you know when it's time to move on, and I'd already made a decision that if the Air Force was ready for me to move on to something else, I was also ready to do that.
- She retired from Vandenberg Air Force Base as a three-star general.
- I ended up leaving the Air Force in 2014, and moving back to Colorado Springs, in large part, because I love Colorado Springs.
I came here with the intent of keeping my fingers in things.
I ended up doing a little bit of consulting.
I've gotten on a couple of private boards, and a couple of public boards.
- She has served on the board of directors at Oil and Gas, and Aerospace, and also for some think tanks in Washington DC.
- They need her inputs, 'cause her experience gives her certain new skill sets that really no one else has.
- Susan is doing very well in her retired life.
She's one of the people that actually makes retirement work.
- It became about going home, reconnecting with family, going the places that she hadn't been able to go because of both the security clearances, and the time constraints.
I think that she looked forward to that more than most, and became Susan Helms again, not General Helms.
- Have a little fun in my free time.
And the two things I like to do, I like to ski in the winter, and I like to RV in the summer.
And I have a little RV that I call my little spaceship, and I've taken that thing all over North America.
[pleasant music] - Susan, along with a couple of other retired astronauts, started a nonprofit, it's called AstraFemina, and the goal is to help bring STEM education to young girls.
- Every time there's an opportunity for her to lean forward, whether it's in a middle school, or talking to college students, she always says yes.
Her heart is big enough to take that brain, and just spread it all over the world.
She opened the door for more and more women to be future astronauts.
[gentle piano music]