Nicole is an astronaut, aquanaut, artist, and now author of her first book Back to Earth What Life In Space Taught Me About Our Home Planet – And Our Mission To Protect It. Nicole is a veteran NASA Astronaut with two spaceflights and 104 days living and working in space as a crewmember on both the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle. Personal highlights of her time in space include performing a spacewalk (10th woman to do so), flying the robotic arm to capture the first Japanese cargo ship, working with her international crew in support of the multi-disciplinary science onboard the orbiting laboratory, painting a watercolor in space (now on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum), and of course the life-changing view of our home planet. Nicole is also a NASA Aquanaut. In preparation for spaceflight, she was a crewmember on an 18-day saturation dive mission at the Aquarius undersea laboratory. On her post-NASA mission, she is a co-founder of the Space for Art Foundation — uniting a planetary community of children through the awe and wonder of space exploration and the healing power of art.