Twenty years before becoming NASA's second female shuttle pilot in 1997, Susan Still was telling everyone in Augusta she was going to be an astronaut. That was when she was 16 and taking flying lessons at Augusta's Daniel Field from aviator Willis "Buster" Boshears in the cockpit of a Cherokee Warrior.

She was born Oct. 24, 1961, in Augusta, the daughter of Joseph and Sue Still, who live in Martinez. Her father is a physician known for his work in treating burn victims. She was a student at Langford Junior High School from 1975-1977 and attended the Academy of Richmond County for a year before transferring to a boarding school in Natick, Mass.

Eventually, she would become a Navy lieutenant commander and the subject of a video documentary, The Big Space Shuttle, aimed at teaching children and their parents about the space shuttle. The film centers around the shuttle missions STS-83 and STS-94 that she piloted. She has logged more than 3,000 flight hours (including nearly 500 in space) in more than 30 different aircraft.