{"id":21870,"date":"2020-01-02T14:09:54","date_gmt":"2020-01-02T19:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/?p=21870"},"modified":"2020-01-02T14:09:54","modified_gmt":"2020-01-02T19:09:54","slug":"rocket-woman-vanessa-ellerbe-wyche-85-m-87","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/rocket-woman-vanessa-ellerbe-wyche-85-m-87\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket Woman: Vanessa Ellerbe Wyche '85, M '87"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASA is working on sending astronauts back to the moon in 2024. Wyche will be there every step of the way.<\/em>\"VANESSA<\/a><\/p>\n

Excitement sneaks\u00a0into Vanessa\u00a0<\/span>Wyche\u2019s voice as she talks about the upcoming Artemis program, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration\u2019s 2024 directive that will see astronauts set foot on the moon once again.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur intent is to go and have infrastructure in place that would allow additional capabilities on the surface of the moon,\u201d she says. Those additional\u00a0<\/span>capabilities include setting up a small gateway platform that will act as a checkpoint for future missions to Mars.<\/p>\n

As the deputy director of NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Wyche has a lot to do before then. One major priority is Orion \u2014 the spacecraft on track to return to the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving spacecraft that are able to withstand going from Earth to the lunar vicinity and returning\u00a0is very important,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019ve not done that since Apollo, so having the right technologies and the right testing are what our workforce is responsible\u00a0<\/span>for laying out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from overseeing construction of Orion, Wyche\u2019s responsibilities include monitoring the International Space Station and the Human Research program (which investigates how humans might survive for longer periods of time in space) as well as working with commercial partners, like Boeing and SpaceX, to develop vehicles that will transport astronauts to and from the space station. Wyche was named deputy director in 2018, but her career with NASA has spanned nearly three decades. After graduating with a bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s in bioengineering from Clemson, Wyche headed to Washington, D.C., where she worked in the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s Office of Device Evaluation. When she and her husband moved to Houston, she found work at NASA as a project engineer, designing flight hardware. Since then, she\u2019s held multiple leadership positions and earned two NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals and two NASA Outstanding Leadership Medals.<\/p>\n

When she\u2019s not at Johnson Space Center, Wyche is championing STEM in her community. For the past six years, NASA has partnered with The Links, Incorporated to bring a science fair to a local elementary school. NASA employees visit the school and mentor the children on their projects, while the nonprofit provides the supplies and resources to put on the fair.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe carrot, the way to get all the kids to participate,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>says Wyche, \u201cis that if they do their project \u2014 no matter how good or bad \u2014 they get a field trip to NASA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently the program has expanded to another local school, which faces even more challenges. Many of its students are destitute.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the surprising thing is that those kids were the most excited about being able to do a science project,\u201d Wyche says. \u201cI\u2019m hoping to be able to continue to support both schools, and my longterm goal is to see if we can expand this further.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wyche\u2019s work in STEM outreach comes from a place of gratitude for NASA\u2019s commitment to future generations \u2014 and also a place of reflection about her own career, one she describes as \u201cawesome. I cannot begin to tell you just how awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASA is working on sending astronauts back to the moon in 2024. Wyche will be there every step of the way. Excitement sneaks\u00a0into Vanessa\u00a0Wyche\u2019s voice as she talks about the upcoming Artemis program, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration\u2019s 2024 directive that will see astronauts set foot on the moon once again. \u201cOur intent is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":21872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[1533,1686,1973,2025,2949,3346],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-21870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumniprofiles","tag-houston","tag-johnson-space-center","tag-moon","tag-nasa","tag-texas","tag-winter-2020-alumni-profiles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/12\/Unknown-7-e1576164841802.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21870"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=21870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}