Houston city leaders broke ground Oct. 14 on the Dr. Shannon Walker Neighborhood Library, named after the three-time Rice graduate and NASA astronaut who has flown two missions aboard the International Space Station. Among the dignitaries in attendance were Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Houston City Council Member Martha Castex-Tatum and Houston Public Library Director Rhea Brown Lawson.
Combining the services of Meyer Neighborhood Library and the Frank Express Library, the library located at 5505 Belrose Dr. is scheduled to open in 2023.
Walker ’87 ’92 ’93 is NASA’s first native Houstonian astronaut. She served as a mission specialist on SpaceX Crew Dragon USCV-1, flight engineer on ISS Expedition 64 and commander of ISS Expedition 65.As a member of ISS Expedition 64/65, the first fully crewed commercial spaceflight in history, Walker and three crewmates spent 167 days aboard the station before returning May 2, 2021, in the first nighttime splashdown at sea since Apollo 8 in 1968.
