Photograph provided by NASA showing Diana Trujillo, supervisor of NASA’s technical group for sequence planning and execution and leader of the tactical mission for the Mars Perseverance rover, while speaking with students at Rolling Terrace Elementary School, on Monday the 13th. March 2023, in Takoma Park, Maryland. EFE/NASA/Aubrey Gemigna EFE/NASA
Diana Trujillo continues to make history at NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), after last weekend she debuted as flight director in the Center’s Mission Control Center team. Johnson Space, one of the most important in the United States.
You may be interested: NASA managed to open a container with astronomical material from the asteroid Bennu after several months
The 44-year-old woman from Cali, who will supervise the NASA program to return to the Moon, presented her motto in a few opening words, ‘We are Flight’, an indicative that speaks, she said, of “a community, of what we are.” as people and what we value.”
You can now follow us on WhatsApp Channel.
You may be interested: Board of Directors agreed to provide flights and travel expenses for congressmen to visit NASA
During the event, the aerospace engineer also presented her insignia, which included the colors of the Colombian flag and references to her career in the North American agency.
Diana Trujillo’s insignia at NASA (Screenshot)
“Diana Trujillo had her inaugural shift as @NASA_Johnson’s 108th flight director last week. Her call name is Somos Flight: for her, “Somos” represents the power of community. Congratulations, Diana! (sic)”, they published on the official NASA account on the social network X.
You may be interested: Scientists discovered that the Moon is shrinking. Will it affect future space missions?
The Colombian also expressed on the station in Houston (Texas) her “absolute joy” for sharing a mission surrounded by “incredible and talented human beings.”
Furthermore, he revealed that “one of the most important lessons learned” was discovering “the power that comes from working together with a team of people who share the same passion for exploration.”
This emotion, she stated, leads to “considering crazy ideas, being faithful to each other, challenging ourselves, seeking the truth,” stressed the first Latina woman to be part of the Academy program of that American space agency and in be selected to direct human spaceflight missions.
He also had words in Spanish when he said that “we are a family, we are mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. We are engineers, scientists and doctors. “We are a community of explorers.”
The word “we are,” he concluded, also speaks of “what we have overcome to become, of what we can do together.” “That’s why my callsign will be ‘We are Flight,’” she reiterated from the control center.
Trujillo is part of a new group consisting of Heidi Brewer, Ronak Dave, Chris Dobbins, Garrett Hehn, Nicole McElroy and Elias Myrmo, who were appointed to lead “teams of flight controllers, research and engineering experts and support personnel throughout the world, making decisions in real time,” the agency detailed in 2022.
“They will be responsible for keeping astronauts safe and executing human spaceflight missions,” said Norm Knight, director of NASA Flight Operations, in a statement.
Becoming a NASA flight director requires years of study and dedication, as well as professional experience in a high-stress environment that requires quick decision-making, so Trujillo in this sense is exemplary, as she is an immigrant who arrived to the United States at the age of 17, with little in her pockets and without speaking English, to become, after years of effort and dedication, the leader of the team of engineers that developed the robotic arm of the Perseverance ship that currently explores Mars. .
The Cali native obtained a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland in College Park, with additional studies at the University of Florida (UF), in Gainesville.
For his outstanding work in 2021, he was awarded the Boyacá Cross, the most important decoration awarded in Colombia to the most outstanding citizens.
In the most recent tribute they paid him in the country, they named after him a new species of orchid that was recently discovered in the Los Farallones National Natural Park, in his native Cali.