Heidemarie Martha Stefanyshyn-Piper (born February 7, 1963) is an American Naval officer and former NASA astronaut.

Her father, Michael (Mykhailo) Stefanyshyn, now deceased, was born in Polish-governed Halychyna (today in Ukraine), and sent to work in Germany during World War II.

[4] After the end of the war, he married a German woman and they both immigrated to the U.S.[4] Stefanyshyn-Piper's mother, Adelheid Stefanyshyn, lived in St. Paul until her death in 2018.

[2] During her Salvage tour, she participated in the de-stranding of the tanker Exxon Houston off the coast of Barbers Point in Hawaii.

Selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in April 1996, Stefanyshyn-Piper reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996.

Stefanyshyn-Piper's participation in two of the mission's three EVAs for a total of 12 hours, 8 minutes made her the second most experienced female spacewalker.

The NASA flight surgeon who assisted her noted that "for a returning astronaut, the symptoms she experienced are very normal for what can occur during re-adaptation".

[19] During the first EVA of STS-126 on November 18, 2008, as Stefanyshyn-Piper was preparing to begin work on the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint, she noticed a significant amount of grease in her tool bag.

[20][21] Mission Control managers instructed Stefanyshyn-Piper to clean up the grease using a dry wipe, and while she was doing the cleanup, she accidentally pushed aside the bag.

[28] During the Mission Status Briefing, lead International Space Station Flight Director Ginger Kerrick said that there was no way to know what caused the bag to come loose.

In particular, her superb leadership as lead spacewalker during the STS-126 mission resulted in restoring full power generation capability to the International Space Station.

In August 2009, Stefanyshyn-Piper reported to the Naval Sea Systems Command as the chief technology officer.

On May 20, 2011, Captain Stefanyshyn-Piper became commander of the Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Maryland.

[32] This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.