Sarah Gillis facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sarah Gillis
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| Born |
Sarah Levine
January 1, 1994 Palo Alto, California, U.S.
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| Occupation | Senior Space Operations Engineer at SpaceX |
| Space career | |
| SpaceX Commercial Astronaut | |
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Time in space
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4 days, 22 hours, 13 minutes |
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Total EVAs
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1 |
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Total EVA time
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7 minutes, 15 seconds |
| Missions | Polaris Dawn |
Sarah Levine "Cooper" Gillis, born on January 1, 1994, is an amazing American engineer. She works for SpaceX as a senior space operations engineer. In September 2024, Sarah flew into space on the Polaris Dawn mission. This was a special private spaceflight run by SpaceX.
During the Polaris Dawn mission, Sarah made history. She completed the first-ever commercial spacewalk with Jared Isaacman. This made her the youngest person to ever do a spacewalk! She also set a new record with Anna Menon for women traveling farthest from Earth.
Contents
Sarah Gillis's Early Life and Education
Sarah Gillis grew up in Boulder, Colorado. She finished high school at Shining Mountain Waldorf School in June 2012. She then went to the University of Colorado Boulder.
In 2017, she earned a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in aerospace engineering. A former NASA astronaut, Joseph R. Tanner, was her mentor and advised her to study aerospace engineering.
Sarah Gillis's Career at SpaceX
Sarah Gillis started working at SpaceX in 2015. This was while she was still studying at the University of Colorado Boulder. She began as an intern, helping to test the Dragon spacecraft.
After her internship, she joined SpaceX full-time. She became a lead space operations engineer. Her job involves training astronauts for SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Training Astronauts
Sarah helped prepare NASA astronauts for important missions. These included the first Crew Dragon test flight, called Demo-2. She also trained the crew for the Crew-1 mission.
More recently, she directly trained the Inspiration4 astronauts. This was the first time an all-civilian crew went into orbit.
Mission Control Expert
Sarah is also an experienced Mission Control Operator. She has supported real-time operations for Dragon's cargo missions. These missions deliver supplies to and from the International Space Station.
She has worked as a Navigation Officer. She also served as a Crew Operations and Resources Engineer (CORE). This role is like the CAPCOM role at NASA, where she talks directly to the astronauts in space.
The Polaris Dawn Mission
In September 2024, Sarah Gillis flew on the Polaris Dawn mission. This was a private spaceflight organized by SpaceX for Shift4 CEO Jared Isaacman.
Spacewalk and Records
During Polaris Dawn, Sarah performed a stand-up extravehicular activity (SEVA). This means she stood up in the spacecraft and looked out into space. She did this with Jared Isaacman. This made her the youngest person ever to do such an activity.
Sarah, along with Anna Menon, also set a new record. They became the women who traveled farthest from Earth.
Music in Space
Later in the mission, Sarah showed another talent. She is a classically trained violinist. She played the solo violin part of "Rey's Theme" from the Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie.
She played this beautiful music to help raise money. The money went to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and El Sistema.
Sarah Gillis in Media
Sarah Gillis appeared in a Netflix series in 2021. The series was called Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space. You can see her in episodes 3, 4, and 5.
See also
- Polaris program
