Bill Allen in JPL s Mars Yard
:Bill Allen in JPL s Mars Yard. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Download image ›
Bill Allen has thrived as the mechanical systems design lead for three Mars rover missions, but he got his start as a teenager sorting letters for the NASA center.
Don t tell Bill Allen he can t take risks.
Allen was just 17 years old when he first set foot on the grounds of NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to join the mailroom in the summer of 1981. Voyager had recently encountered Saturn, and the Lab was crawling with members of the media. It was like walking into a football stadium in the middle of the touchdown. It was electric, he says. This is something that doesn t go on anywhere else in the world, and to be immersed in it with your first footsteps was crazy. That alone was awe-inspiring.
10 Dec 2020
Vice President Mike Pence, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, introduced some of the 18 astronauts that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has chosen to be on the initial team for the early Artemis missions on and around the Moon.
Nine of the astronauts are women, and one of them will most likely be the first woman to step foot on the Moon.
The Moon missions are part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to restart the nation’s space program after Barack Obama virtually shut it down. Trump also created the United States Space Force, now one of eight U.S. uniformed services.
NICOLE MANN, MS ’01;
KATE RUBINS, PhD ’06; and
JESSICA WATKINS, BS ’10 – are among the 18 astronauts chosen to be part of the “Artemis Team.”
According to the press release from NASA, the Artemis program will “land the first woman and next man on the moon in 2024 and establish a sustainable human lunar presence by the end of the decade.”
Jessica Watkins is one of three Stanford alumni selected for NASA’s next mission to the moon. (
Courtesy of NASA)
Mann was born in Petaluma, California, and grew up in nearby Rohnert Park. She received a Master of Science degree from Stanford in mechanical engineering with a specialty in fluid mechanics in 2001 and joined the astronaut corps in 2013. According to NASA, Mann is currently training for the first crew flight test of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.
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