Dr. Karen Nyberg

Dr. Karen Nyberg is an engineer, astronaut, and artist who, through nearly thirty years of experience in human spaceflight, has gained an appreciation for the value of working within and across diverse political ideologies, cultural values, and world views to advance critical missions.
Karen was selected as a member of the NASA Astronaut Corps in 2000. She made her first trip to space aboard Space Shuttle Discovery in 2008, during the height of International Space Station (ISS) construction, delivering and installing the Japanese Laboratory. On her second spaceflight in 2013, Karen launched on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and lived and worked aboard the ISS for 166 days. Across her two missions she spent a total of 180 days in space.

Prior to astronaut selection, Karen worked as an Environmental Control Systems Engineer at the Johnson Space Center, where she led several design and analysis initiatives in the areas of space vehicle and space suit thermal and environmental control. Recently retired from NASA, Karen is currently pursuing interests in the areas of conservation and sustainability, fully appreciating the responsibility for innovation and technology to strive to meet those needs.

Karen received her undergraduate degree from the University of North Dakota and graduate degrees from the University of Texas at Austin, and has been honored with the highest alumni award from each alma mater.
In 2013, aboard the ISS, she cut a star from fabric she had carried up from Earth and sewed it by hand — becoming the first person to sew a quilt block in space. She and NASA then invited quilters around the world to send in their own star-themed blocks. Thousands of blocks arrived at Johnson Space Center from dozens of countries, and NASA and community volunteers assembled them into the Astronomical Quilts, a collection that has since been exhibited nationally.

A decade later she invited the country to join her again, this time in partnership with the Kennedy Center and NASA, creating the curriculum and challenge behind The Next Giant Leap: Lunar Quilts — a national call that drew quilt blocks from students and artists in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, inspired by NASA’s Artemis campaign. The two finished quilts were exhibited at the Kennedy Center as part of the EARTH TO SPACE festival in 2025. Her textile work has been exhibited at museums and festivals globally, and her children’s book A Quilt of Stars, telling the story of the first quilt block sewn in space, publishes in fall 2026.