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Kate Rubins

KATE RUBINS

PROFILE

 

 

Full Name:

Dr. Kathleen Hallisey RUBINS.

Rank:

Major, US Army Reserve; PhD (Cancer Biology).

Born:

14 October 1978, in Farmington, Connecticut, USA (American)

Raised in Napa, California.

Education:

1996: Graduated Vintage High School, Napa, California.

 

1999: BSc degree in Molecular Biology from the University of California, San Diego.

 

2005: PhD in Cancer Biology from Stanford University Medical School Biochemistry Department and Microbiology and Immunology Department.

Career Highlights:

1996-2009: Following graduation from high school, Rubins pursued further academic qualifications. She gained her BSc and PhD degrees and subsequently furthered her career in microbiology research positions. Her undergraduate research was conducted at the Infectious Diseases Laboratory of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, where her research focused upon HIV-1 integration.

 

From 1999: With colleagues, she developed the first model of smallpox infection, working with the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

Until 2009: At the time of her selection to the astronaut programme, Rubins held a Fellow/Principal Inestigator position at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (MIT/Cambridge, Massachusetts), heading a laboratory of 14 researchers studying viral diseases with a focus on Central and West Africa. During this period, she also travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo to conduct research and supervise study sites.

 

3 Nov 2021: Directly commissioned as a Major in the US Army Reserve, serving as a health service officer with the 75th Innovation Command.

 

 

NASA ASTRONAUT ASSIGNMENTS

2009:

(29 June) Selected as one of nine Mission Specialist (MS) candidates for Group 20 ("The Chumps"); (Aug) began Ascan training.

2010:

Ascan training.

2011:

Ascan training; (14 Nov) graduated Ascan training course.

2012:

Astronaut Office (Code CB) technical assignments.

2013:

ISS Capcom.

2014:

(Spring) Identified as provisional BUp FE-2, Soyuz TMA-20M (EO-46/47); (16 Dec) approved as BUp FE, Soyuz TMA-20M (EO-46/47) and as prime for ISS EO-48/49; ISS expedition training.

2015:

(Early) Assistant to the Chief Astronaut for EVA/Robotics Branch; ISS expedition training; (2-4 Feb) Soyuz winter survival training; ISS expedition training; (19 Nov) passed Soyuz TMA-M exam; (20 Nov) passed Russian ISS segment exam; (23 Nov) approved as BUp FE Soyuz TMA-19M; ISS expedition training; (15 Dec) BUp FE-2 during Soyuz TMA-19M launch.

2016:

Soyuz expedition training; (26 May) passed Russian ISS segment exams; (27 May) passed Soyuz MS exams; ISS expedition training; (6 Jul) approved as FE-2 Soyuz MS; (7 Jul - 30 Oct) flew as FE-2 Soyuz MS and FE-6 ISS EO-48/49; (19 Aug) EVA 5 hrs 58 min from Quest (EV2, with Jeff Williams); (1 Sep) EVA 6 hrs 48 min (EV2, with Jeff Williams); (30 Oct) landed in Soyuz MS (115 days 2 hrs 21 min 42 sec); post-flight debriefs and recovery.

2017:

CB technical assignments; (at some point after her first space flight, Rubins served as NASA's Deputy Director for Human Health and Performance).

2018:

Chief, CB EVA/Robotics Branch.

2019:

Chief, CB EVA/Robotics Branch; (Apr 2019 - Apr 2020) Director of Operations Russia (DOR).

2020:

(until April) DOR; (Feb) Soyuz winter survival training; (6 Mar) identified as potential BUp FE Soyuz MS-17 and prime for MS-18; ISS expedition training; (Apr 2020 - Jun 2022) assistant to the Chief Astronaut for SpaceX; (28 May) replaced Steven Bowen (reassigned to SpaceX training) as FE-2 Soyuz MS-17; (29 May) approved as FE-2 Soyuz MS-17; ISS expedition training; (3 Jun) NASA confirms assignment as FE Soyuz MS-17 and to ISS EO-63/64; ISS expedition training; (22 Sep) passed Russian ISS segment exam; (23 Sep) passed Soyuz MS exam; ISS expedition training; (14 Oct 2020 - 17 Apr 2021) flew as FE Soyuz MS-17 and as FE-6 ISS EO-63/64; (9 Dec) named as a member of the Artemis training team; IN SPACE.

2021:

IN SPACE; FE-6 EO-64; (28 Feb) EVA 7 hrs 4 min (EV1, with Victor Glover); (5 Mar) EVA 6 hrs 56 min (EV1, with Soichi Noguchi); (17 Apr) landed in Soyuz MS-17 (184 days 23 hrs 10 min 7 sec); post-flight debriefs and recovery; (summer 2021 - 2023) EVA/Robotics Branch (concurrent with assistant jobs); assistant to the Chief Astronaut for SpaceX; (Nov) direct commission as Major, US Army Reserve.

2022:

EVA/Robotics Branch; assistant to the Chief Astronaut for SpaceX (until Jun); assistant to the Chief Astronaut for Gateway (until early 2024).

2023:

EVA/Robotics Branch; assistant to the Chief Astronaut for Gateway.

2024:

Assistant to the Chief Astronaut for Gateway; (early) Chief, CB Mission Support Branch; (13-17 May) participated with Andre Douglas in the 5th Joint Eva and Human Surface Mobility Test Team (JETT5), the highest fidelity Artemis III EVA simulation conducted to date at a lunar analogue site near Flagstaff, Arizona. The pair conducted four simulated lunar EVAs over a five-day period, supported by a Flight Control Team in the Science Evaluation Room (SER) at JSC, Houston.

2025:

Chief, CB Mission Support Branch; (28 Jul) retired from NASA after 16 years as an astronaut.

 

 

POST-ASTRONAUT EXPERIENCE

2025:

 

Kate RUBINS Space Flight Missions

Mission

Vehicle

Position

Dates

DD/MM/YY

Duration

DD:HH:MM:SS

EVAs

ISS EO-48/49

Soyuz MS

Flt Eng 6

07/07/2016-30/10/2016

115:02:21:42

(2) 12 hrs 46 min

ISS EO-63/64

Soyuz MS-17

Flt Eng 6

14/10/2020-17/04/2021

184:23:10:07

(2) 14 hrs 00 min

 

 

 

 

 

 

Missions Flown:

2

Total Flight Time:

300:01:31:49

(4) 26 hrs 46 min

 

 

 

 

 

 
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This profile is copyright Astro Info Service Ltd 2025.

All images are courtesy of NASA, unless otherwise stated.
During her NASA career, Kate Rubins performed four spacewalks - or EVAs - at ISS, totalling almost 27 hours outside the station.
In a ceremony held at NASA JSC in November 2021, Lt. General Jody Daniels, chief of Army Reserve and commanding general US Army Reserve Command, conducts the Oath of Office with astronaut Dr. Kate Rubins, who was commissioned to the rank of major during the ceremony. She would subsequently be awarded the Army Aviator Badge with Astronaut Device in another ceremony at JSC in November 2024.

Image courtesy of the US Army Reserve, taken by Sgt. 1st Class Javier Orona.
Dr. Kate Rubins poses with Biomolecule Sequencer experiment hardware in the Destiny US laboaratory aboard ISS. During her EO-48/49 mission, Rubins became the first person to sequence DNA in space.
Dr. Rubins conducts botany research for a Plant Water Experiment testing hydroponics as a way to support space agriculture, during her second stay aboard ISS on EO-63/64.
Moments after landing in Kazakhstan, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins is helped out of the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft. She and her Roscosmos colleagues Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Ryzikhov had spent 185 days in space as Expedition 63/64 aboard ISS.
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins takes a picture of a geologic sample during JETT5 moonwalk simulations in northern Arizona in May 2024.