Tracy Drain facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Tracy Drain
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Official NASA profile photograph, 2008
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| Education | Mechanical Engineering, University of Kentucky |
| Occupation | Systems Engineer |
| Employer | NASA |
| Spouse(s) | Ted Drain (Married 2003 - present) |
Tracy Drain is a super smart engineer who works at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). She helps lead the Juno mission, which arrived at Jupiter in June 2016. Her job is to make sure all the parts of a spacecraft work together perfectly.
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Learning About Space
Tracy Drain was born in Louisville, Kentucky. From a young age, she was really curious about space and how our solar system formed. When she was in 11th grade at Waggener High School, she decided to study mechanical engineering.
Tracy loved science fiction shows like Star Trek, Star Wars, and Battlestar Galactica. She also loved math and watched every space shuttle launch on TV. She was the first person in her family to go to college. She earned a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kentucky in 1998. Then, she got a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2000.
While in college, she spent two summers working as an intern for NASA Langley. She chose to work at JPL because she felt their goal of exploring space with robots was exactly what she wanted to do.
Exploring Space with NASA
Tracy Drain started working at JPL right after college in 2000. Her first big project was the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This spacecraft was designed to study Mars. After it launched in 2005, Tracy became a lead engineer for the mission.
In 2007, Tracy joined the Kepler mission. Kepler's job was to find planets similar to Earth outside our solar system. She worked on making sure Kepler was ready for its mission until 2009.
Later, in 2009, she joined the Juno mission. Juno is a spacecraft that studies Jupiter's gravity and magnetic fields. Tracy is now a supervisor for the team that designs flight systems. She has worked for NASA for over 17 years!
Tracy also worked on the Psyche mission. This mission will study a huge metal asteroid in our solar system. It is planned to launch in 2022. Currently, Tracy is the lead engineer for NASA's Europa Clipper mission. This mission will launch in 2024 to study one of Jupiter's moons, Europa.
Inspiring Others
Tracy Drain loves to share her excitement about engineering with everyone. She works with the National Academy of Sciences to help movies and TV shows get their science facts right. She was also a judge at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.
Tracy often talks about women in film and engineering. She always encourages girls and young people to explore careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). She helped promote the movie "Hidden Figures" by taking part in special films and discussions called "Hidden Figures, Modern Figures." In 2017, Tracy gave a TEDx talk called "Beauty of the Fall."
Awards and Achievements
Tracy Drain has received several important awards for her amazing work:
- 2007 - NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal for her excellent work on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission.
- 2009 - NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal for her great work getting the Kepler mission ready for launch and operations.
- 2015 - JPL Bruce Murray Award for helping minority and female STEM students through community programs.
- 2015 - Women in Engineering ProActive Network Women in Engineering Champion Award.
Personal Life
Tracy Drain is married to Ted Drain, who is also an engineer at JPL.
See also
In Spanish: Tracy Drain para niños
