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By NASA
Lisa Pace knows a marathon when she sees one. An avid runner, she has participated in five marathons and more than 50 half marathons. Though she prefers to move quickly, she also knows the value of taking her time. “I solve most of my problems while running – or realize those problems aren’t worth worrying about,” she said.
She has learned to take a similar approach to her work at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “Earlier in my career, I raced to get things done and felt the need to do as much as possible on my own,” she said. “Over time, I’ve learned to trust my team and pause to give others an opportunity to contribute. There are times when quick action is needed, but it is often a marathon, not a sprint.”
Official portrait of Lisa Pace.NASA/Josh Valcarcel Pace is chief of the Exploration Development Integration Division within the Exploration Architecture, Integration, and Science Directorate at Johnson. In that role, she leads a team of roughly 120 civil servants and contractors in providing mission-level system engineering and integration services that bring different architecture elements together to achieve the agency’s goals. Today that team supports Artemis missions, NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative and other areas as needed.
Lisa Pace, seated at the head of the table, leads an Exploration Development Integration Division team meeting at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA/James Blair “The Artemis missions come together through multiple programs and projects,” Pace explained. “We stitch them together to ensure the end-to-end mission meets its intended requirements. That includes verifying those requirements before flight and ensuring agreements between programs are honored and conflicts resolved.” The division also manages mission-level review and flight readiness processes from planning through execution, up to the final certification of flight readiness.
Leading the division through the planning, launch, and landing of Artemis I was a career highlight for Pace, though she feels fortunate to have worked on many great projects during her time with NASA. “My coolest and most rewarding project involved designing and deploying an orbital debris tracking telescope on Ascension Island about 10 years ago,” she said. “The engineers, scientists, and military personnel I got to work and travel with on that beautiful island is tough to top!”
Pace says luck and great timing led her to NASA. Engineering jobs were plentiful when she graduated from Virginia Tech in 2000, and she quickly received an offer from Lockheed Martin to become a facility engineer in Johnson’s Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division, or ARES. “I thought working in the building where they keep the Moon rocks would be cool – and it was! Twenty-five years later, I’m still here,” Pace said.
During that time, she has learned a lot about problem-solving and team building. “I often find that when we disagree over the ‘right’ way to do something, there is no one right answer – it just depends on your perspective,” she said. “I take the time to listen to people, understand their side, and build relationships to find common ground.”
Lisa Pace, right, participates in a holiday competition hosted by her division.Image courtesy of Lisa Pace She also emphasizes the importance of getting to know your colleagues. “Relationships are everything,” she said. “They make the work so much more meaningful. I carry that lesson over to my personal life and value my time with family and friends outside of work.”
Investing time in relationships has given Pace another unexpected skill – that of matchmaker. “I’m responsible for setting up five couples who are now married, and have six kids between them,” she said, adding that she knew one couple from Johnson.
She hopes that strong relationships transfer to the Artemis Generation. “I hope to pass on a strong NASA brand and the family culture that I’ve been fortunate to have, working here for the last 25 years.”
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By NASA
An artist’s concept of NASA’s Orion spacecraft orbiting the Moon while using laser communications technology through the Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System.Credit: NASA/Dave Ryan As NASA prepares for its Artemis II mission, researchers at the agency’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland are collaborating with The Australian National University (ANU) to prove inventive, cost-saving laser communications technologies in the lunar environment.
Communicating in space usually relies on radio waves, but NASA is exploring laser, or optical, communications, which can send data 10 to 100 times faster to the ground. Instead of radio signals, these systems use infrared light to transmit high-definition video, picture, voice, and science data across vast distances in less time. NASA has proven laser communications during previous technology demonstrations, but Artemis II will be the first crewed mission to attempt using lasers to transmit data from deep space.
To support this effort, researchers working on the agency’s Real Time Optical Receiver (RealTOR) project have developed a cost-effective laser transceiver using commercial-off-the-shelf parts. Earlier this year, NASA Glenn engineers built and tested a replica of the system at the center’s Aerospace Communications Facility, and they are now working with ANU to build a system with the same hardware models to prepare for the university’s Artemis II laser communications demo.
“Australia’s upcoming lunar experiment could showcase the capability, affordability, and reproducibility of the deep space receiver engineered by Glenn,” said Jennifer Downey, co-principal investigator for the RealTOR project at NASA Glenn. “It’s an important step in proving the feasibility of using commercial parts to develop accessible technologies for sustainable exploration beyond Earth.”
During Artemis II, which is scheduled for early 2026, NASA will fly an optical communications system aboard the Orion spacecraft, which will test using lasers to send data across the cosmos. During the mission, NASA will attempt to transmit recorded 4K ultra-high-definition video, flight procedures, pictures, science data, and voice communications from the Moon to Earth.
An artist’s concept of the optical communications ground station at Mount Stromlo Observatory in Canberra, Australia, using laser communications technology.Credit: The Australian National University Nearly 10,000 miles from Cleveland, ANU researchers working at the Mount Stromlo Observatory ground station hope to receive data during Orion’s journey around the Moon using the Glenn-developed transceiver model. This ground station will serve as a test location for the new transceiver design and will not be one of the mission’s primary ground stations. If the test is successful, it will prove that commercial parts can be used to build affordable, scalable space communication systems for future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
“Engaging with The Australian National University to expand commercial laser communications offerings across the world will further demonstrate how this advanced satellite communications capability is ready to support the agency’s networks and missions as we set our sights on deep space exploration,” said Marie Piasecki, technology portfolio manager for NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program.
As NASA continues to investigate the feasibility of using commercial parts to engineer ground stations, Glenn researchers will continue to provide critical support in preparation for Australia’s demonstration.
Strong global partnerships advance technology breakthroughs and are instrumental as NASA expands humanity’s reach from the Moon to Mars, while fueling innovations that improve life on Earth. Through Artemis, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
The Real Time Optical Receiver (RealTOR) team poses for a group photo in the Aerospace Communications Facility at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. From left to right: Peter Simon, Sarah Tedder, John Clapham, Elisa Jager, Yousef Chahine, Michael Marsden, Brian Vyhnalek, and Nathan Wilson.Credit: NASA The RealTOR project is one aspect of the optical communications portfolio within NASA’s SCaN Program, which includes demonstrations and in-space experiment platforms to test the viability of infrared light for sending data to and from space. These include the LCOT (Low-Cost Optical Terminal) project, the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration, and more. NASA Glenn manages the project under the direction of agency’s SCaN Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The Australian National University’s demonstration is supported by the Australian Space Agency Moon to Mars Demonstrator Mission Grant program, which has facilitated operational capability for the Australian Deep Space Optical Ground Station Network.
To learn how space communications and navigation capabilities support every agency mission, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/communicating-with-missions
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By NASA
Explore This SectionScience Europa Clipper Buoyant Rover for Under Ice… Europa Clipper Home MissionOverview Facts History Timeline ScienceGoals Team SpacecraftMeet Europa Clipper Instruments Assembly Vault Plate Message in a Bottle NewsNews & Features Blog Newsroom Replay the Launch MultimediaFeatured Multimedia Resources About EuropaWhy Europa? Europa Up Close Ingredients for Life Evidence for an Ocean To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are developing the Buoyant Rover for Under-Ice Exploration, a technology that could one day explore oceans under the ice layers of planetary bodies. The prototype was tested in arctic lakes near Barrow, Alaska. Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are developing the Buoyant Rover for Under-Ice Exploration, a technology that could one day explore oceans under the ice layers of planetary bodies. The prototype was tested in arctic lakes near Barrow, Alaska.
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By NASA
Explore This SectionScience Europa Clipper Europa’s Stunning Surface Europa Clipper Home MissionOverview Facts History Timeline ScienceGoals Team SpacecraftMeet Europa Clipper Instruments Assembly Vault Plate Message in a Bottle NewsNews & Features Blog Newsroom Replay the Launch MultimediaFeatured Multimedia Resources About EuropaWhy Europa? Europa Up Close Ingredients for Life Evidence for an Ocean The puzzling, fascinating surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed color view.NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute Downloads
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The puzzling, fascinating surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed color view, made from images taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. This is the color view of Europa from Galileo that shows the largest portion of the moon’s surface at the highest resolution.
The view was previously released as a mosaic with lower resolution and strongly enhanced color (see PIA02590). To create this new version, the images were assembled into a realistic color view of the surface that approximates how Europa would appear to the human eye.
The scene shows the stunning diversity of Europa’s surface geology. Long, linear cracks and ridges crisscross the surface, interrupted by regions of disrupted terrain where the surface ice crust has been broken up and re-frozen into new patterns.
Color variations across the surface are associated with differences in geologic feature type and location. For example, areas that appear blue or white contain relatively pure water ice, while reddish and brownish areas include non-ice components in higher concentrations. The polar regions, visible at the left and right of this view, are noticeably bluer than the more equatorial latitudes, which look more white. This color variation is thought to be due to differences in ice grain size in the two locations.
Images taken through near-infrared, green and violet filters have been combined to produce this view. The images have been corrected for light scattered outside of the image, to provide a color correction that is calibrated by wavelength. Gaps in the images have been filled with simulated color based on the color of nearby surface areas with similar terrain types.
This global color view consists of images acquired by the Galileo Solid-State Imaging (SSI) experiment on the spacecraft’s first and fourteenth orbits through the Jupiter system, in 1995 and 1998, respectively. Image scale is 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) per pixel. North on Europa is at right.
The Galileo mission was managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.
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By NASA
5 Min Read Heather Cowardin Safeguards the Future of Space Exploration
As branch chief of the Hypervelocity Impact and Orbital Debris Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Dr. Heather Cowardin leads a team tasked with a critical mission: characterizing and mitigating orbital debris—space junk that poses a growing risk to satellites, spacecraft, and human spaceflight.
Long before Cowardin was a scientist safeguarding NASA’s mission, she was a young girl near Johnson dreaming of becoming an astronaut.
“I remember driving down Space Center Boulevard with my mom and seeing people running on the trails,” she said. “I told her, ‘That will be me one day—I promise!’ And she always said, ‘I know, honey—I know you will.’”
Official portrait of Heather Cowardin. NASA/James Blai I was committed to working at NASA—no matter what it took.
Heather Cowardin
Hypervelocity Impact and Orbital Debris Branch Chief
Today, that childhood vision has evolved into a leadership role at the heart of NASA’s orbital debris research. Cowardin oversees an interdisciplinary team within the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division, or ARES. She supports measurements, modeling, risk assessments, and mitigation strategies to ensure the efficiency of space operations.
With more than two decades of experience, Cowardin brings expertise and unwavering dedication to one of the agency’s most vital safety initiatives.
Her work focuses on characterizing Earth-orbiting objects using optical and near-infrared telescopic and laboratory data. She helped establish and lead the Optical Measurement Center, a specialized facility at Johnson that replicates space-like lighting conditions and telescope orientations to identify debris materials and shapes, and evaluate potential risk.
Cowardin supports a range of research efforts, from ground-based and in-situ, or in position, observations to space-based experiments. She has contributed to more than 100 scientific publications and presentations and serves as co-lead on Materials International Space Station Experiment missions, which test the durability of materials on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory.
She is also an active member of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee, an international forum with the goal of minimizing and mitigating the risks posed by space debris.
Heather Cowardin, left, holds a spectrometer optical feed as she prepares to take a spectral measurement acquisition on the returned Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 radiator. It was inspected by the Orbital Debris Program Office team for micrometeoroid and orbital debris impacts at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in 2009, and later studied for space weathering effects on its painted surface. Her passion was fueled further by a mentor, Dr. James R. Benbrook, a University of Houston space physics professor and radar scientist supporting the Orbital Debris Program Office. “He was a hard-core Texas cowboy and a brilliant physicist,” she said. “He brought me on as a NASA fellow to study orbital debris using optical imaging. After that, I was committed to working at NASA—no matter what it took.”
After completing her fellowship, Cowardin began graduate studies at the University of Houston while working full time. Within a year, she accepted a contract position at Johnson, where she helped develop the Optical Measurement Center and supported optical analyses of geosynchronous orbital debris. She soon advanced to optical lead, later serving as a contract project manager and section manager.
Heather Cowardin inspects targets to study the shapes of orbital debris using the Optical Measurement Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. What we do at NASA takes new thinking, new skills, and hard work—but I believe the next generation will raise the bar and lead us beyond low Earth orbit.
Heather Cowardin
Hypervelocity Impact and Orbital Debris Branch Chief
Building on her growing expertise, Cowardin became the laboratory and in-situ measurements lead for the Orbital Debris Program Office, a program within the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance at NASA Headquarters. She led efforts to characterize debris and deliver direct measurement data to support orbital debris engineering models, such as NASA’s Orbital Debris Engineering Model and NASA’s Standard Satellite Breakup Model, while also overseeing major projects like DebriSat.
Cowardin was selected as the Orbital Debris and Hypervelocity Integration portfolio scientist, where she facilitated collaboration within the Hypervelocity Impact and Orbital Debris Office—both internally and externally with stakeholders and customers. These efforts laid the foundation for her current role as branch chief.
“I’ve really enjoyed reflecting on the path I’ve traveled and looking forward to the challenges and successes that lie ahead with this great team,” she said.
One of Cowardin’s proudest accomplishments was earning her doctorate while working full time and in her final trimester of pregnancy.
“Nothing speaks to multitasking and time management like that achievement,” Cowardin said. “I use that story to mentor others—it’s proof that you can do both. Now I’m a mom of two boys who inspire me every day. They are my motivation to work harder and show them that dedication and perseverance always pay off.”
From left to right: Heather Cowardin, her youngest child Jamie, her husband Grady, and her oldest child Trystan. The family celebrates Jamie’s achievement of earning a black belt. Throughout her career, Cowardin said one lesson has remained constant: never underestimate yourself.
“It’s easy to think, ‘I’m not ready,’ or ‘Someone else will ask the question,’” she said. “But speak up. Every role I’ve taken on felt like a leap, but I embraced it and each time I’ve learned and grown.”
She has also learned the value of self-awareness. “It’s scary to ask for feedback, but it’s the best way to identify growth opportunities,” she said. “The next generation will build on today’s work. That’s why we must capture lessons learned and share them. It’s vital to safe and successful operations.”
Heather Cowardin, fifth from left, stands with fellow NASA delegates at the 2024 Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee meeting hosted by the Indian Space Research Organisation in Bengaluru, India. The U.S. delegation included representatives from NASA, the Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Federal Communications Commission. To the Artemis Generation, she hopes to pass on a sense of purpose.
“Commitment to a mission leads to success,” she said. “Even if your contributions aren’t immediately visible, they matter. What we do at NASA takes new thinking, new skills, and hard work—but I believe the next generation will raise the bar and lead us beyond low Earth orbit.”
When she is not watching over orbital debris, she is lacing up her running shoes.
“I’ve completed five half-marathons and I’m training for the 2026 Rock ‘n’ Roll half-marathon in Nashville,” she said. “Running helps me decompress—and yes, I often role-play technical briefings or prep conference talks while I’m out on a jog. Makes for interesting moments when I pass people in the neighborhood!”
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Science & Research Astromaterials Johnson Space Center People of Johnson Explore More
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