ATLANTA (November 8, 2024) – Porsche Cars North America. Inc. (PCNA) is proud to recognize the 40th anniversary of astronaut and chemist Anna Lee Fisher’s flight to space – the Mission STS-51A on November 8, 1984.

Fisher, the first mother to travel to space, was the proud owner of a Porsche 930 Turbo when she arrived to train as a mission specialist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Recently, PCNA spoke with Fisher. She reminisced on her days in the space program, her four-decade career as an astronaut and her passion for Porsche.

“I’ve always loved Porsche from the time I was little, Fisher recently reminisced from behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 Turbo, “My mom and my grandmother are from Germany, and one of my uncles had a Porsche and used to take me on rides all the time.”

Rides in her uncle’s Porsche cemented her love of adventure. After listening at age 12 to a radio broadcast of Alan Shepard becoming the first American in space, Fisher dreamed of becoming an astronaut, a profession held then by mostly men. She started her career as a medical doctor, which she credits helped best prepare her for astronaut training, then she was accepted into NASA’s astronaut training program in 1979. Her first daughter as born in 1983, followed by a second daughter six years later.

Fisher retired from NASA in 2017, but her love for space exploration and the Porsche brand remains unchanged.