Janet L. Kavandi was born in Springfield, Missouri. Very little is known about her youth but she did attend high school in Carthage, Missouri and graduated in 1977. Kavandi chose to attend college in Missouri as well. First she attended and graduated from the Missouri Southern State College and then at the University of Missouri in Rolla where she earned her masters degree.

After attending college in Missouri to secure her undergraduate and graduate degrees, Kavandi decided to pursue her doctorate. She graduated from the University of Washington at Seattle with her Ph.D.

Janet Kavandi worked on the Boeing defense projects in the 1980s. She was selected in December of 1994 as an astronaut candidate for NASA and soon Kavandi was reporting for duty at the Johnson Space Center (March '95).

Janet Kavandi served as a mission specialist on various missions including the 1998 STS-91 Mission and the 1999 STS-99. She was trained and gained experience on the shuttle and space station robotic manipulator systems.

A veteran of over three space missions, Kavandi has traveled over 13.1 million miles on her space exhibitions which includes 535 earth orbits. She has spent over 33-logged days in space. She's married and has two children.