K. Megan McArthur

In 2019, McArthur was appointed Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office.

Selected as a mission specialist by NASA in July 2000, McArthur reported for training in August 2000. She trained at the Carter training facility. Following the completion of two years of training and evaluation, she was assigned to the Astronaut Office Shuttle Operations Branch working technical issues on shuttle systems in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL). McArthur then served as the Crew Support Astronaut for the Expedition 9 Crew during their six-month mission aboard the International Space Station. She also worked in the Space Station and Space Shuttle Mission Control Centers as a Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM). In 2006, McArthur was the capsule communicator (capcom) for STS-116. She was also the EVA capcom for the STS-117 mission in 2007.

McArthur was born in Honolulu, Hawaii but grew up in Northern California. She dreamed of being an astronaut when she was a teenager. She attended London Central High School and graduated from St. Francis High School in Mountain View, California, then later earned a B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from UCLA in 1993. In 2002, she was awarded a Ph.D. in oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

Katherine Megan McArthur (born August 10, 1971) is an American oceanographer and a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut. She has served as a Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) for both the space shuttle and space station. Megan McArthur has flown one space shuttle mission, STS-125. She is known as the last person to be hands on with the Hubble Space Telescope via the Canadarm. McArthur has served in a number of positions including working in the Shuttle Avionics Laboratory (SAIL). She is married to fellow astronaut Robert L. Behnken.