Karen Nyberg
Dr. Karen Nyberg is a mechanical engineer and astronaut with 30 years of experience working at NASA on human spaceflight.
She began her career as an Environmental Control Systems Engineer at the Johnson Space Center, focusing on thermal and environmental controls for space vehicles and space suits. Then in 2000, she was selected as a member of the NASA Astronaut Corps. Dr. Nyberg made her first trip to space aboard Space Shuttle Discovery in 2008, during the height of International Space Station (ISS) construction.
On her second spaceflight in 2013, Dr. Nyberg launched on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and lived and worked at the ISS for 166 days. During that time, Dr. Nyberg became the first person to sew and quilt in space; with the support of NASA, she invited crafters from around the world to join the Astronomical Quilt Challenge to stitch together a global community quilt.
While living on the ISS, Dr. Nyberg loved spending time in the cupola gazing at the beauty of Earth from space. Seeing its fragile beauty from afar inspired her to new levels of creativity: Since retiring from NASA in 2020, Dr. Nyberg has pursued her passion of creating textile art, designing fabrics and quilt patterns to inspire interest in STEAM and helping find solutions for the sustainability of our planet.
Dr. Nyberg lives in Park City, Utah with her husband, Astronaut Doug Hurley; their son, Jack; and their two sweet dogs, Leo and Luke.