Jenny Devolites, NASA Systems Engineer, is following her dream of making space exploration a reality.

by CDR Karen Fine Brasch, USN, Ret.

Jenny Devolites (NASA/Johnson Space Center)

“NASA to Discuss Deep Space Exploration Progress at Johnson Space Center” highlights Orion activities at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, on Thursday, April 26, 2018. What is Orion? “NASA’s Orion spacecraft is built to take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before. Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. Orion will launch on NASA’s new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System.”

Before NASA can fly any crew aboard a spaceship, they need to conduct abort flight tests to demonstrate abort capability in the event of a launch emergency. That’s where Jenny Devolites and her team come in, providing the emergency abort capability integration testing and she is among the panel members presenting exploration progress at JSC this week.


Passionate about her career, her team, and her mission, Jenny has found that somewhat elusive dream in which her career and her hobby are one and the same. Unburdened by the teenage indecision of what she wanted for a career, Jenny has known from her early years that it would involve space.

Naturally gifted in math and science, Jenny grew up watching Star Trek with her family. When asked, “What made you choose the Space Program?” She replied without hesitation, “Captain Kirk.”  Last year for Christmas, she even had special bracelets made for her and her sisters in honor of their Star Trek mentor whom they credit as their inspirational childhood hero.  Simply engraved, the bracelets read,  “W. W. C. K. D.?”  (What Would Captain Kirk Do?)

A self-proclaimed nerd (and proud of it), she has loved everything about space exploration for as long as she can remember. An Aerospace Engineering graduate of Texas A&M University, Jenny reflects on growing up and that she knew she’d be in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) field before it was even called STEM. The best day of her young life was when she got her letter from NASA inviting her to be an intern while still attending college. That was over twenty-five years ago and she loves her job today just as much as the day she received that letter.

Jenny is the Deputy Lead for building the test crew module for the Orion flight test. She casually mentioned that one of the highlights of her job is to be the Test Conductor during the flight test. For anyone watching a live rocket ship launch, what she humbly means is that she is a voice you will hear during the live countdown on launch day in Mission Control at Cape Canaveral.

After a first attempt at asking her to summarize the impact of her program, I realized that I couldn’t understand the technical terms, mathematical implications, and the physics behind her brief explanation. So, I tried again. “Can you break it down for the non-STEM readers?” I asked. Without missing a beat, she expertly, and impressively, dialed it back to layman’s terms. Simply put, she described her project to me as a safety test. “There is a rocket with a booster underneath. On top of the rocket is crew module and on top of that is the abort module. The purpose of the abort module is to be able to pull away from the crew module in case of a failed launch. It lights an abort motor that can separate the crew module from the booster within seconds.” That’s her job. That is what she gets to do every day when she goes to work. Jenny works with a team of brilliant minds, across numerous organizations, making it possible to explore space and save lives at the same time. No need for an engineering degree to understand that impact.

For the Orion abort module program, she leveraged the success she and her team had with the  Morpheus lander project. Morpheus was an in-house, NASA built, full-scale planetary lander design that used liquid oxygen-liquid (LOC) methane propulsion and automated precision landing capability. It was an un-crewed module, unlike Orion which will carry a flight crew. Morpheus was sized to carry a payload of about 500kg to land on a planetary surface. It was completely automated, and Jenny’s team completed 15 flight tests at the Kennedy Space Center shuttle landing facility.

Jenny and the Orion Ascent Abort 2 Team (NASA/Johnson Space Center)

 

Work-life balance has never been a significant struggle for Jenny. While she is quite clearly dedicated to her role in NASA’s space exploration programs, she has also has raised two honor student daughters. When not at work, she can be found reading physics books for fun, taking leadership courses, running, baking or cheering on her girls at their travel volleyball games. The challenges a lot of women face with having a family and a career don’t really resonate with her. She says, “We all have a work-life balance here; the men and the women. In her experience, wanting to spend quality time with your family is not unique to just women. All of her team members, mostly who are men, enjoy the work-life balance that NASA offers.

Jenny & Morpheus (NASA/Johnson Space Center

It’s not just the fact that her job affords her family time.  Jenny reiterates that it is a phenomenal culture for women at NASA. When she was asked recently at a leadership conference, “What’s it like being a woman in management in NASA?” She answered, “Incredible culture. I don’t know anything different.  I don’t notice that I’m a woman. Our culture doesn’t differentiate based on gender. Just experience. It’s about being able to do the job. If you like math and science, if you’re interested in space, consider boldly going where no one has gone before.”
 
When asked what advice she has for young adults seeking a career in space exploration, she answered, “I don’t have gender-specific advice, but I’m surprised there aren’t more women in this field. It’s the coolest job. If you’re interested, go for it. It’s a fantastic career.“

Jenny thrives on growth and learning. She is always seeking out new leadership techniques, better tools, and streamlined processes. She credits the ability to constantly innovate, by not just looking at new ways of doing business, but by bringing her team and the organization along.

Jenny reflects on the thrill she gets from her contribution to space exploration. “Everyone looks up in the sky every night and sees stars and planets, and we’re stuck here. And we shouldn’t be. We should be able to get off this planet and explore. That is why I work as hard as I do. That’s why the 15-year-old out there who wants to be inspired should look up and imagine being part of space exploration. Contribute to it and make it happen. Go out into the galaxy and explore.”

After all, W. W. C. K. D. ?