Dr. Resnik was a design engineer conducting support for NASA sounding rocket and telemetry programs, as well as a biomedical engineer in the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at the National Institute of Health.
Dr. Resnik was chosen to be an astronaut and qualified as a mission specialist. Her first mission was the maiden voyage of Discovery, which completed 96 Earth orbits. She became the second American woman to go into space. Dr. Resnik was selected to fly again on Challenger STS 51-L, which was destroyed one minute and 13 seconds after its launch.
Judith A. Resnik made the ultimate sacrifice and lost her life in service to the nation and the space program on January 28, 1986 at 36 years of age.