Date of Birth	August 17, 1952 in Montgomery, Alabama
Childhood / Family	Married to Stephen T. Thornton, Ph.D., of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. She has two stepsons and three daughters. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Cordell are deceased.
Education	Graduated from Sidney Lanier High School, Montgomery, Alabama, in 1970; received a bachelor of science degree in physics from Auburn University in 1974, a master of science degree in physics from the University of Virginia in 1977, and a doctorate of philosophy in physics from the University of Virginia in 1979.
Occupation	Employed as a physicist at the U.S. Army Foreign Science and Technology Center.
Military Service / Civilian	U.S. Army Foreign Science and Technology Center
Space Training / Specialty	Dr. Thornton became an astronaut in July 1985
Contribution to Space Travel	She is a veteran of four space flights and has logged more 975 hours in space, including 21 hours of extravehicular activity (EVA) and holds the women’s record for number and duration of EVA.
Space Missions	She was part of the following space missions: STS-33, STS-49, STS-61, and STS-73.
Outside Activities	She enjoys scuba diving and skiing.
Interesting Fact(s)	Served as an EVA specialist aboard the STS-61 Hubble Space Telescope service and repair mission.
Status	She left NASA on August 1, 1996, to join the faculty of the University of Virginia.
Images
Links	http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/thornt-k.html http://www7.nationalacademies.org/aseb/Thornton_bio.html http://www.astronautix.com/astros/thornton.htm http://www.spacehike.com/spacewalkermom.html

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