Powtawche Valerino

Valerino was born to a Mississippi Choctaw mother and African-American father. She grew up on the Mississippi Choctaw reservation and is an enrolled member of the tribe.[1] When she was ten, she moved with her family to New Orleans. A few years later she saw the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion on television and became interested in science.[2] Valerino learned cello at age twelve, and still plays in the Pasadena Community Orchestra.[1][3] During high school, Valerino interned as a mechanical engineer as part of NASA's Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program, where highly achieving students shadow NASA professionals.[4]

She obtained a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University, and received her master's degree and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from Rice University.[5] During summers at graduate school, Valerino interned at Johnson Space Center in Houston and Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Mississippi, where she worked on the X-38 vehicle (International Space Station lifeboat) team.[6] Her dissertation, Optimizing Interplanetary Trajectories to Mars via Electrical Propulsion, was submitted to Rice in 2005.[7] She was the first Native American to earn a PhD in engineering at Rice University.[6]

Cassini-Huygens lifted off with a Titan 4(01)B from Launch Complex 40.

Valerino joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mission Design and Navigation Section in 2005.[5] She first worked on the proposed Jupiter Icy Moon Orbiter mission, then transferred to the Cassini mission, where she was a navigator with the maneuver and trajectory team.[8][9] The Cassini mission far outlived the predicted four-year lifetime, with engineers like Valerino pushing it to thirteen years.[10] Throughout the Cassini mission, Valerino shared the spacecraft status and findings with the public.[11]

Her most recent project was the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft,[12] which launched on August 12, 2018.[13] It became the first satellite to fly as close to the sun as Helios 2 did in 1976.[14][15]

Valerino at the site of NASA's Space Launch System program.

Valerino has worked to recruit and encourage the participation of under-represented groups in science.[16] This has included working with Soledad O'Brien to encourage black and Latina young women to pursue careers in STEM at the PowHERful Summit.[17] In 2016 she received the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Education Award for her outreach activities.[18] In 2017, Valerino joined 21st Century Fox in their promotion of the film Hidden Figures, which tells of the role of outstanding African-American mathematicians and scientists in the Apollo program.[19][20][21][22]

Valerino is a fan of comic books. She has also discussed strong women in graphic novels on podcasts.[23]

• Juan Arrieta, Christopher G. Ballard, Yungsun Hahn, Paul W. Stumpf, Powtawche N. Valerino, Sean V. Wagner. 2012. Cassini Solstice Mission Maneuver Experience: Year Two. AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference. doi: 10.2514/6.2012-4433.
• Sean V. Wagner, Juan Arrieta, Yungsun Hahn, Paul W. Stumpf, Powtawche N. Valerino, and Mau C. Wong. (Preprint) AAS 13-717 Cassini Solstice Mission Maneuver Experience: Year Three. trs.jpl.nasa.gov (preprint).
• Powtawche N. Valerino, Brent Buffington, Kevin Criddle, Yungsun Hahn, Rodica Ionasescu, Julie A. Kangas, Tomas Martin-Mur, Ralph B. Roncoli and Jon A. Sims. 2014. Preliminary Maneuver Analysis for the Europa Clipper Multiple-Flyby Mission. AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference. doi: 10.2514/6.2014-4461.