People of NASA – Page 4 – NeRDs Moonbase

Langley Celebrates Black History Month: Brandon Sells

February 27, 2024 NeRD

5 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Brandon Sells joined NASA’s Langley Research Center in September 2023 as an aerospace engineer with the Aeronautics Systems Analysis Branch (ASAB) of the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate (SACD). NASA/David C. Bowman Brandon Sells joined NASA’s Langley Research Center in September 2023 as an aerospace engineer with the Aeronautics Systems Analysis Branch (ASAB) of the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate (SACD). Brandon earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering-aerospace concentration from North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, N.C.…

Math, Mentorship, Motherhood: Behind the Scenes with NASA Engineers

February 22, 2024 NeRD

Engineering is a huge field with endless applications. From aerospace to ergonomics, engineers play an important role in designing, building, and testing technologies all around us. We asked three engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley to share their experiences, from early challenges they faced in their careers to the day-to-day of being a working engineer. Give us a look behind the curtain – what is it like being an engineer at NASA? In her early days at NASA, Diana Acosta visited her aeronautics research and development…

NASA Audio Specialist Named in Forbes 30 Under 30 List of Innovators

December 4, 2023 NeRD

3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Katie Konans, NASA’s audio and podcasting lead at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is one of two NASA employees named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Class of 2024. The other agency honoree, Clare Luckey, is a systems engineer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Katie Konans is NASA’s audio and podcasting lead at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. NASA/Rob Andreoli Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list is a selection of young,…

Celebrating Astronaut Alan Shepard’s 100th Birthday

November 17, 2023 NeRD

Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., attired in his Mercury pressure suit, poses for a photo on May 5, 1961, prior to his launch in a Mercury-Redstone 3 spacecraft from Cape Canaveral on a suborbital mission – the first U.S. manned spaceflight. NASA Born barely 20 years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight, Alan Shepard grew up to fly combat missions in World War II, test multiple new aircraft, become the first American in space, and ultimately hit the first golf shot on the Moon. Born on Nov. 18, 1923, Shepard…

NASA Researcher Honored by Goddard Tech Office for Earth Science Work

November 17, 2023 NeRD

Earth science researcher Dr. Antonia Gambacorta earned the 2023 Goddard IRAD Technology Leadership award for pioneering new ways to measure lower layers of Earth’s atmosphere from space. The award from the chief technologist of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, recognizes Gambacorta’s work demonstrating how hyperspectral microwave sounding, the measurement of hundreds of thousands of wavelengths of microwave light, could dissect Earth’s atmospheric planetary boundary layer (PBL). She also conceptualized a microwave photonics radiometer instrument to reveal these measurements. NASA / Christopher Gunn The part of Earth’s atmosphere…

NASA Engineer Earns Goddard Innovation Award for Sun-studying Photon Sieves

November 15, 2023 NeRD

Goddard’s Office of the Chief Technologist named engineer Steven Denis as the FY23 Internal Research and Development (IRAD) Innovator of the Year, an honor the office bestows annually on individuals who demonstrate the best in innovation. Kevin Denis Credit: NASA / Christopher Gunn Denis demonstrated persistence and innovation in developing hair-thin photon sieves to focus extreme ultraviolet light – a difficult wavelength to capture. Thin membranes matter for solar science, he said, because these sieves transmit up to seven times more light than thicker materials. Denis’s work will open new…

NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana to Retire After 38 Years

November 13, 2023 NeRD

NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana delivers remarks during a Moon to Mars Town Hall, Thursday, May 18, 2023, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. NASA/Keegan Barber NASA Associate Administrator and former astronaut Robert Cabana announced Monday his retirement, effective Sunday, Dec. 31 after more than 38 years of service. As associate administrator, Cabana has been the agency’s highest ranking civil servant, third highest ranking NASA official, and the senior advisor to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. Among notable contributions to the nation…

NASA’s Modern History Makers: Sarah Tipler

October 30, 2023 NeRD

5 min read NASA’s Modern History Makers: Sarah Tipler Sarah Tipler poses in front of a mural of NASA astronaut Michael Anderson in Plattsburgh, New York. Credit: Sarah Tipler <back to gallery Growing up, Sarah Tipler always felt out of place. She had trouble with time management, structuring her day, and focusing her attention, but she didn’t know why. “For all of my undergraduate education, I really struggled to keep up despite understanding the material,” Tipler said. “It took a ton of work to make good grades happen, including asking…

NASA, JAXA Benefit from Collaborative Fellowship Experience

October 27, 2023 NeRD

NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Katherine Cook, fourth from the left, attends a welcome reception for the 26th class of Mansfield Scholars at the Iikura House in Japan on Sept. 1, 2022. The reception was jointly hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, the Mansfield Foundation, and the National Personnel Authority of Japan. Contributed photo A yearlong journey of cultural and professional development overseas has a NASA Deep Space Logistics employee excited about current and future collaboration with one of America’s key international partners in the agency’s Artemis program. …