Laurel Blair Clark (née Salton; March 10, 1961 – February 1, 2003) was an American NASA astronaut, medical doctor, United States Navy captain, and Space Shuttle mission specialist.

Clark was a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and held a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued Technician Class amateur radio license with the call sign KC5ZSU.

During that assignment, she dove with Navy divers and Naval Special Warfare Unit Two SEALs and performed many medical evacuations from US submarines.

Clark made several deployments, including one overseas to the Western Pacific, practiced medicine in austere environments, and flew on multiple aircraft.

Clark's bioscience experiments included gardening in space, as she discussed only days before her death in an interview with Milwaukee media near her Wisconsin hometown.

[9][10] In the released text of the email, Clark called the planet magnificent, and explained that while she spends much of the time working back in Spacehab and away from the sights of Earth, "whenever I do get to look out, it is glorious."

Clark also shared some of the intriguing effects of micro gravity on human physiology, such as constant challenge to stay adequately hydrated due to an "almost non-existent" sense of thirst.