Research dossier · People & Ideas

Mae Jemison

American astronaut, doctor and engineer (born 1956)

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia

Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0

Source revisionSep 2, 2026

Entity authoritySource title only

Source-derived summary

Mae Carol Jemison is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first African-American woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992. Jemison joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1987 and was selected for the STS-47 mission, during which the Endeavour orbited the Earth for nearly eight days on September 12–20, 1992.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Mae Jemison” as american astronaut, doctor and engineer (born 1956). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1992, 1987—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Jemison, American and astronaut can be independently traced.

Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american astronaut, doctor and engineer (born 1956). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1992 and 1987.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for

Establishing names and roles
Building a first chronology
Locating cited institutions

Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

Establish the record: confirm the title “Mae Jemison”, its source revision and the description used here.
Expand the search: follow Mae Jemison primary sources, Mae Jemison archive and Jemison research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Mae Jemison”?
How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?

Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Mae Jemison history →Mae Jemison primary sources →Mae Jemison archive →Jemison research →American research →astronaut research →doctor research →

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Mae Jemison” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.