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Shannan Moynihan

American physician

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Shannan Moynihan is the Deputy Chief of Space and Occupational Medicine at the Johnson Space Center. She has acted as crew surgeon for International Space Station missions.

As a child, Moynihan wanted to become an astronaut.^[1] She studied aeronautical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[2] She studied medicine at New York University and graduated in 1999.^[2][3] She completed a residency in emergency medicine at the University of Florida.^[2] She completed a Masters in public health and aerospace medicine in Houston.^[2]

Moynihan worked as a flight surgeon at the University of Texas Medical Branch Wyle Laboratories.^[4] She was part of the Medical Operations team for the C-9 Familiarization Flight.^[5] She joined NASA in 2008.^[6] She manages the medical care for the occupants of interplanetary spacecraft.^[1] Around this time, Moynihan noticed that long duration astronauts were coming back with distinct visual changes.^[7] She has since been studying Spaceflight-Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome, and sent an optical coherence tomography scanner up to the ISS.^{[7][8][9][10]}

She was part of the NASA twins study, monitoring astronaut Scott Kelly and his brother Mark Kelly.^[11] In 2016 she published practical considerations that must be taken for women astronauts on the International Space Station.^[12] She is concerned about reproductive viability, bone health, menopausal status and nutrition.^[12] Moynihan relies on telemedicine to provide health care to astronauts on board the International Space Station.^[13] The astronauts use a colour-coded ultrasound machine and make calls to Moynihan using a VoIP phone.^[13] During a sixth-month mission, one of the astronauts, who suffered with a history of knee injury, developed a persistent pain. This was assessed using ultrasound, where images were live streamed back to the planet Earth.^[14]

She took part in the BBC documentary Women with the Right Stuff and the book Promised the Moon.^[15][16][17] She appeared in the Channel 4 documentary, Live from Space.^[18][19] She is affiliated with San Jacinto Methodist Hospital.^[3]