Jeanne Lee Crews facts for kids

Jeanne Lee Crews (born in 1940) is an incredible American engineer who worked at NASA. She was one of the very first women engineers to join the space agency! Jeanne retired in 2002 and now lives in Florida. She is famous for inventing a special shield that protects spacecraft from dangerous space junk. This shield is still used today on the International Space Station! Jeanne was also one of the first women at NASA to experience a weightless flight.

Early Life and Dreams

Jeanne Lee Crews was born in 1940. When she was about 8 years old, she became very interested in space and science. She loved all kinds of science! At first, Jeanne thought she would become an astronomer, someone who studies stars and planets.

Her father was a pilot in the Air Force. Both her mom and dad supported her love for science. They gave her telescopes, microscopes, and anything else she was curious about. When the first satellite, Sputnik, was launched into space, it made her even more excited about space.

Jeanne went to the University of Texas to study aerospace engineering. This is a type of engineering that deals with designing aircraft and spacecraft. She later finished her degree at the University of Florida.

In September 1964, Jeanne was hired as an engineer at NASA. She was one of the first women engineers to work there. Jeanne once said that she had to work very hard to get important jobs. People often wanted to "hold her hand" because they weren't used to women engineers. But she understood they just didn't know how to act. After being hired, she moved to Houston, Texas.

Working at NASA

Jeanne worked on many important projects at NASA, including the Apollo missions. She also worked on Skylab, which was an early space station.

Flying in Zero Gravity

Jeanne got to fly in a special plane that creates a feeling of weightlessness, also known as zero gravity. Besides nurses who were sometimes on these flights, Jeanne was one of the very first women to experience zero-G.

Even though she was an engineer, NASA didn't want people to think she might become an astronaut. So, she was told not to be photographed getting in or out of the training simulators.

Protecting Spacecraft from Space Junk

Jeanne created a special laboratory where she studied how to protect spacecraft and satellites. She focused on impacts from space debris and tiny meteoroids. It was clear that even small pieces of space junk, moving super fast, could cause serious damage to spacecraft.

Jeanne invented a project called the multi-shock shield. She started by building a small gun that used hydrogen fuel. She used this gun to shoot tiny objects at different materials. This helped her see how well spacecraft could handle high-speed impacts.

After many tests, Jeanne realized that the aluminum usually used to build spacecraft was easily damaged by space junk. Her solution was a shield made of "multiple layers of ceramic fabric, open-cell foam and other materials." This special layered shield would repeatedly hit and break apart incoming particles. This protected the spacecraft behind it. She made the shield from fabric to make it lighter but still very strong. This invention is known as the flexible multi-shock shield. NASA owns the patent for it, and it is still used today on the International Space Station!

Collecting Space Trash

More recently, Jeanne Lee Crews has been working on a way to collect space junk. Her idea is a very large balloon, about 1 to 10 kilometers wide. This balloon would be made of a special ceramic fabric. When space junk hits the balloon, the fabric would "shock" it so much that it would turn into vapor. If there are many layers, the junk would be shocked again and again, getting smaller and smaller. Once the balloon is full of vaporized space junk, it would return to Earth.

During her years at NASA, Jeanne was an engineer, a project manager, and a researcher. Towards the end of her career, she helped lead a division. Jeanne retired from NASA in November 2002.

Awards and Recognition

Jeanne Lee Crews received many awards for her amazing work:

• In 1990, she received a patent for the multi-shock shield.
• In 1992, she won the Tech Brief Award.
• She was also given the Women in Aerospace Lifetime Achievement Award.
• In 1993, she won the NASA Exceptional Service Medal.
• In 1995, she won the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal.
• She also received several other awards for her shield design and for reducing its weight.
• In 1999, she won the Silver Snoopy Award, which is given by NASA astronauts for outstanding contributions to flight safety and mission success.
• In 2006, Jeanne was honored for her "Far-Reaching Inventions."