A Princeton native was a part of the team at NASA responsible for the successful astronaut launch through SpaceX over the weekend.
Rebecca Johnson Wingfield, who is a Flight Director at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, says she is part of the larger team working on the Demo-2 space mission in conjunction with SpaceX that successfully saw astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley board the International Space Station.
She adds she was responsible for getting team members prepared for their next assignments.
Wingfield expresses she loves her job and is excited to be involved in such a large part of history.
She also imparted a piece of advice for current students aspiring to make their dreams come true.
Wingfield, who is a 2002 graduate of Caldwell County High School, received a bachelors in science in mechanical engineering and mathematics from the University of Kentucky before earning her masters in science systems engineering from the University of Houston – Clear Lake. She has been employed as a Flight Director at NASA since 2018.
The Demo-2 mission is the first orbital human spaceflight to launch from the United States since NASA’s space shuttle fleet retired in 2011. The Falcon 9 rocket, with the attached Crew Dragon capsule carrying Behnken and Hurley, launched Saturday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The capsule arrived at the International Space Station Sunday. Behnken and Hurley will stay aboard the orbiting lab for four months.