Patricia S. Cowings

The first American woman to be trained as a scientist astronaut by NASA, Cowings was an aerospace psychophysiologist whose work focused on the physiology of astronauts in outer space. She served as an alternate for a spaceflight in 1979 but did not travel to space.

Cowings is credited with creating and patenting the autogenic-feedback training exercise (AFTE), a method developed to treat motion sickness in astronauts. Her research into the physiological challenges of spaceflight contributed to efforts to find effective cures for this condition.