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. ?

Helping Dreams Soar: Though Shaesta's flight has ended, the mission continues!

Shaesta & Jill (Photo: Jill Meyers)

by Jill Meyers

This is the last post in my Helping Dreams Soar blog series, as this week marked the end of the Dreams Soar Global Flight for STEM. Shaesta Waiz returned to Daytona Beach International Airport on October 4th, flying the Beechcraft Bonanza A36 back to its starting point, greeted by the Dreams Soar team, friends, and a handful of media. What was originally going to be a 90-day journey turned into a 145-day journey, common amongst almost every “earthrounder”. As I told many people along the way, we don’t control the weather and we can’t predict aircraft maintenance issues. But how long it took Shaesta Waiz to fly around the world solo is not important at all. What is important are the incredible accomplishments of this mission, never done before in the history of the world.

Shaesta flew almost 25,000 nautical miles across five continents and landed the Bonanza in 20 different countries. She crossed three oceans - the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific - and quite a few seas including the Mediterranean and the Arabian. In addition, she flew via commercial carrier to two countries, England and Afghanistan, to hold Outreach events in places she couldn’t fly to in the Bonanza. We held a total of 32 incredibly successful Outreach events in 17 different locations, inspiring and reaching over 3,000 young girls and boys in person. Many people have flown around the world alone, including nine women, but none of them had the primary goal of inspiring and empowering young girls to reach for the stars and follow their dreams! None of them faced the challenges we did in having to work across every time zone on the planet to reschedule events, often multiple times, due to weather or aircraft delays. It is one thing to reschedule an arrival at international airports when schedules change, which is complex enough, but to be rescheduling visits to schools, gatherings of hundreds of kids at an airport or other venue, and moving media interviews around was not easy!

The pressure on Shaesta and our team was significant due to the calendar of flights and events. A great deal of the burden was on me, as I was handling Outreach planning and ground logistics, and supporting flight planning. But we took each day one at a time, and just played the cards we were dealt. I told Shaesta many times along the way to not worry about the schedule, since that was my job, and I encouraged her to focus on flying safely and keeping the aircraft moving eastward, which she did! In addition to flying and taking care of the Bonanza, Shaesta had to focus on other priorities like staying healthy and getting enough rest, so that when she wasn’t piloting or dealing with the aircraft, she had the necessary energy to tell her passionate story to a group of kids, and then go off and be interviewed by global media like CNN World News or The Independent. All very taxing and exhausting week after week.

We both, along with everyone on the Dreams Soar team, feel incredibly proud of the success of this mission. And as Shaesta always says, “success is never achieved alone”. The entire Dreams Soar team, led during these five months by the amazing Lyndse Costabile, came through every time with whatever help was needed. The reason this is miraculous is that all of us are volunteers, and with the exception of me and Lyndse, they all have day jobs. Busy day jobs. But they have strong passion and found the time to help this mission move forward. And we had the support of so many organizations, many of which I’ve talked about in earlier posts. And of course, our donors, who provided much needed financial or “in-kind” support during these five months. Shaesta would not have completed this flight without everyone’s help. This was the epitome of a team effort!

Matia Karrell, creator and director of FlyGirls and the person who asked me to write this blog, often asks me to be “more personal” in my writing. So here goes. I am very sad to have this journey end and have cried a bit these past few weeks. Being Shaesta’s primary support person, talking and texting with Lyndse many times a day and well into the night, and working with amazing people all over the globe to inspire young girls to pursue their dreams, has been the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. I have made friends all over the world in these past months, and although we say we will meet again, no one knows for sure if that’s true. And although I plan to support Dreams Soar for as long as it exists, I don’t know how often I’ll see the wonderful members of this organization – the Dream Team, the Board members and the Advisory Council members, some of whom I still have not met.

And then there is Shaesta. It is mind blowing that we did not meet until the day before her launch in May. You would never know that seeing us now. But being her “lifeline”, as the Dreams Soar Board called me, and being her “virtual co-pilot”, as Shaesta herself called me, allowed us to build a very special bond between us that will never be broken. We went through a lot together, navigating the many different waters of this global flight. I helped Shaesta get around the world and through some challenges along the way, and we also celebrated the success of each and every Outreach event together. I was very lucky to experience the events in Dubai and Washington DC with Shaesta, and the rest I had to experience vicariously through talking with Shaesta and looking at photos. In turn, Shaesta trusted me to make plans and decisions on her behalf and got to know me well enough by mid-summer to give me a good bit of worldly advice about my own life! I believe Shaesta is what we often call “an old soul”, insightful beyond her years, and with an incredibly altruistic view of the world. I learned a lot from her and will continue to, and I tell her all the time how she has changed my life forever. So, I thank you, Shaesta Waiz, here in this public forum, for having and executing your vision of making the world a better place, and for asking me to be part of that journey.

Dreams Soar’s mission, with Shaesta leading the way, will continue on after this flight, with plans to expand and keep inspiring the next generation of STEM and aviation professionals around the globe, especially young girls who don’t have the means to get a good education without outside help. I look forward to continuing my support to Shaesta and Dreams Soar, whatever that might look like as I transition into a paying “day job”. This has been the time of my life and Shaesta’s landing in Daytona Beach was in fact bittersweet. But I’ll do what I’ve been doing since May, taking life just one day at a time, and hoping that the best is yet to come.

Please continue to follow Shaesta's journey on social media:

https://www.facebook.com/DreamsSoar/

https://twitter.com/DreamsSoarSTEM

https://www.instagram.com/dreamssoar/

Helping Dreams Soar: Aviators Jill Meyers & Shaesta Waiz are on amission to help young women realize their dreams!

Jill Meyers

"Helping Dreams Soar" is a new Sunday segment that will run throughout August and September and is written by Jill Meyers about her experiences working with Dreams Soar, Inc. and the history-making flight of its founder and pilot Shaesta Waiz. Shaesta is piloting a Beechcraft Bonanza A36 solo around the world. Her mission is to inspire girls and young women to pursue science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and aviation education and careers.

by Jill Meyers

There is nothing more rewarding than finding your true purpose in life, and I believe it’s even more rewarding to find it later in life! 

Four months ago, after more than three decades in the aviation and aerospace business, I quit my job. I didn’t have a plan --  I just knew that I needed to find a way to help the next generation find their passion for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) careers, specifically in aviation. I have been a STEM advisor since the 1980s (before they called it STEM!), but only a few hours a month here and there at most. It wasn’t enough. 

Two weeks after I left my job at a major defense contractor, I received a text message from Shaesta Waiz, Founder, President and Pilot for Dreams Soar, Inc., a non-profit, all-volunteer organization working to inspire young girls to pursue STEM and aviation education and careers. I had never met Shaesta at that point, but I knew Lyndse Costabile, their Board of Directors Chairwoman. I had contacted Lyndse earlier in the year, offering to help connect Dreams Soar with WAI chapters worldwide.

So -- back to the text message. I had been on a couple of conference calls with Shaesta and the team, providing a few suggestions on their Outreach program. A few days after a very long meeting, I received the text message which led to a phone call with Shaesta, and before I knew it I was their new Women in STEM/Outreach Coordinator.  What an incredible four months it has been!

Shaesta & the Dreams Soar Bonanza A36. (Photo: Jill Meyers) 

Shaesta is flying around the world solo on a Global Flight for STEM, piloting a Beechcraft Bonanza A36 with five of the six seats ripped out and replaced with extra fuel tanks for the two ocean crossings. She is currently about halfway around the world on a route that stops in 34 places in 18 countries on five continents, and we are holding Outreach events in about 20 of those stops. Shaesta has already completed hugely successful Outreach events in Columbus, Ohio; Montreal, Canada; Madrid, Spain; London, UK: Athens, Greece; Cairo, Egypt; Dubai, UAE; and Singapore, and she has been to seven additional countries for fuel and rest stops. 

Why is Shaesta's story inspiring to young girls? 

Shaesta was born in a refugee camp in Afghanistan and her family fled to the U.S. when she was very young to escape the Soviet invasion. She does not come from wealth. English was her third language as they spoke Farsi and Pashto at home. She did not excel in school yet at the age of 30 she has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Aeronautics and holds a commercial pilot’s license. She is the first woman from Afghanistan ever to hold a civilian pilot’s license.

Shaesta talks to children at the Madrid Air Museum in Spain. (Photo: Dreams Soar)

 

As Outreach Coordinator for Dreams Soar, I assist local organizations worldwide in planning outreach events. I also manage the logistics and scheduling of Shaesta's flight and act as her primary point of contact during her journey. We talk every day and have a private messaging system to communicate while she is in flight. This, along with being given the opportunity to spend a week with her in Dubai, has offered me the rare gift to get to know Shaesta very well. It is fair to say that she is one of the most amazing and inspiring people I have ever met.  Shaesta’s story is one of finding your passion, working hard, and letting your dreams soar. 

In the weeks to come, I will tell you about what it's like to support this organization, to choreograph Shaesta's activities, and to help thousands of young girls around the world let their dreams soar!

Read about Shaesta's May 13th launch event and learn more about Dreams Soar on their website!

Helping Dreams Soar: Aviators Jill Meyers & Shaesta Waiz are on a mission to help young women realize their dreams!

"Helping Dreams Soar" is a new Sunday segment that will run throughout August and September and is written by Jill Meyers about her experiences working with Dreams Soar, Inc. and the history-making flight of its founder and pilot Shaesta Waiz. Shaesta is piloting a Beechcraft Bonanza A36 solo around the world. Her mission is to inspire girls and young women to pursue science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and aviation education and careers.

by Jill Meyers

There is nothing more rewarding than finding your true purpose in life, and I believe it’s even more rewarding to find it later in life!

Four months ago, after more than three decades in the aviation and aerospace business, I quit my job. I didn’t have a plan --  I just knew that I needed to find a way to help the next generation find their passion for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) careers, specifically in aviation. I have been a STEM advisor since the 1980s (before they called it STEM!), but only a few hours a month here and there at most. It wasn’t enough.

Two weeks after I left my job at a major defense contractor, I received a text message from Shaesta Waiz, Founder, President and Pilot for Dreams Soar, Inc., a non-profit, all-volunteer organization working to inspire young girls to pursue STEM and aviation education and careers. I had never met Shaesta at that point, but I knew Lyndse Costabile, their Board of Directors Chairwoman. I had contacted Lyndse earlier in the year, offering to help connect Dreams Soar with WAI chapters worldwide.

So -- back to the text message. I had been on a couple of conference calls with Shaesta and the team, providing a few suggestions on their Outreach program. A few days after a very long meeting, I received the text message which led to a phone call with Shaesta, and before I knew it I was their new Women in STEM/Outreach Coordinator.  What an incredible four months it has been!

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="750.0"] Shaesta & the Dreams Soar Bonanza A36. (Photo: Jill Meyers) [/caption]

Shaesta is flying around the world solo on a Global Flight for STEM, piloting a Beechcraft Bonanza A36 with five of the six seats ripped out and replaced with extra fuel tanks for the two ocean crossings. She is currently about halfway around the world on a route that stops in 34 places in 18 countries on five continents, and we are holding Outreach events in about 20 of those stops. Shaesta has already completed hugely successful Outreach events in Columbus, Ohio; Montreal, Canada; Madrid, Spain; London, UK: Athens, Greece; Cairo, Egypt; Dubai, UAE; and Singapore, and she has been to seven additional countries for fuel and rest stops.

Why is Shaesta's story inspiring to young girls?

Shaesta was born in a refugee camp in Afghanistan and her family fled to the U.S. when she was very young to escape the Soviet invasion. She does not come from wealth. English was her third language as they spoke Farsi and Pashto at home. She did not excel in school yet at the age of 30 she has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Aeronautics and holds a commercial pilot’s license. She is the first woman from Afghanistan ever to hold a civilian pilot’s license.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="700.0"] Shaesta talks to children at the Madrid Air Museum in Spain. (Photo: Dreams Soar) [/caption]

As Outreach Coordinator for Dreams Soar, I assist local organizations worldwide in planning outreach events. I also manage the logistics and scheduling of Shaesta's flight and act as her primary point of contact during her journey. We talk every day and have a private messaging system to communicate while she is in flight. This, along with being given the opportunity to spend a week with her in Dubai, has offered me the rare gift to get to know Shaesta very well. It is fair to say that she is one of the most amazing and inspiring people I have ever met.  Shaesta’s story is one of finding your passion, working hard, and letting your dreams soar.

In the weeks to come, I will tell you about what it's like to support this organization, to choreograph Shaesta's activities, and to help thousands of young girls around the world let their dreams soar!

Read about Shaesta's May 13th launch event and learn more about Dreams Soar on their website!

Meet the Rogue Women Astronauts of the 1960s Who Never Flew...

...but they passed the same tests the male astronauts did—and, yes, in high heels!

By Kat Eschner
smithsonian.com
June 16, 2017

Valentina Tereshkova was the first-ever woman to fly a spacecraft, on June 16, 1963. But even before Tereshkova took off, the United States was researching–and discarding–the idea of sending women into space, for reasons that had nothing to do with their abilities. It would take another twenty years before Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.

This is the story of the First Lady Astronaut Trainees, an elite group of women pilots who underwent astronaut testing and seemed like they might be on track to become astronauts in the early 1960s.
 
The best remembered of these women is probably Jerrie Cobb, a record-setting aviator. Even though Cobb and twelve others did extremely well in the astronaut tests, none of them went to space and the program they were part of was killed, speaking to the unwarranted sexism of the early American space program.

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/meet-american-women-who-trained-space-1960s-180963704/#XV1PGTHP9uxPmj5r.99

Meet the Rogue Women Astronauts of the 1960s Who Never Flew

But they passed the same tests the male astronauts did—and, yes, in high heels

By Kat Eschner

smithsonian.com
June 16, 2017

Valentina Tereshkova was the first-ever woman to fly a spacecraft, on June 16, 1963. But even before Tereshkova took off, the United States was researching–and discarding–the idea of sending women into space, for reasons that had nothing to do with their abilities. It would take another twenty years before Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.

This is the story of the First Lady Astronaut Trainees, an elite group of women pilots who underwent astronaut testing and seemed like they might be on track to become astronauts in the early 1960s.  The best remembered of these women is probably Jerrie Cobb, a record-setting aviator. Even though Cobb and twelve others did extremely well in the astronaut tests, none of them went to space and the program they were part of was killed, speaking to the unwarranted sexism of the early American space program.

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/meet-american-women-who-trained-space-1960s-180963704/#XV1PGTHP9uxPmj5r.99