Catherine Grace "Cady" Coleman (born December 14, 1960) is an American chemist, engineer, former United States Air Force colonel, and retired NASA astronaut.

degree in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1983 and was commissioned as graduate of the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (Air Force ROTC).,[2] then received a Ph.D. degree in polymer science and engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1991.

During her work, she participated as a surface analysis consultant on the NASA Long Duration Exposure Facility experiment.

In 1995, she was a member of the STS-73 crew on the scientific mission USML-2 with experiments including biotechnology, combustion science, and the physics of fluids.

She was mission specialist in charge of deploying the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its Inertial Upper Stage out of the shuttle's cargo bay.

STS-73 on Space Shuttle Columbia (October 20 to November 5, 1995) was the second United States Microgravity Laboratory (USML-2) mission.

[14][15] On May 13 of that year, Coleman delivered a taped commencement address to the class of 2011 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

As of 2015, she is also known to be working as a guest speaker at the Baylor College of Medicine, for the children's program "Saturday Morning Science".