She is the author of the book Managing Martians: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman's Lifelong Quest to Get to Mars—and of the Team Behind the Space Robot That Has Captured the Imagination of the World.

She began taking flying lessons at age 15 and soloed at the Pauls Valley airport the next year.

Donna Shirley enrolled in the University of Oklahoma as an engineering student, despite the fact that her advisor told her that, "...

[3] During Shirley's junior year at the University of Oklahoma, she became engaged and decided to change her degree to professional-writing in order to graduate faster.

She went to work as a specification writer and an aerodynamicist for McDonnell Aircraft in Saint Louis, Missouri for about a year and eventually decided to return to OU to complete her aerospace/mechanical engineering degree.

She was a member of the team that designed a heat shield for a space vehicle that was destined to enter Mars' atmosphere.