PTS Alum Plays Role in NASA's Space Launch System

For the first time in 50 years, a spacecraft is preparing to launch on a journey to the moon. The uncrewed flight test of the Space Launch System with the Orion spacecraft stacked atop it will launch into space for a journey around the far side of the Moon and back, with liftoff projected to take place soon.

We'd like to extend our congratulations to alumna Vicky Garcia who worked on the SLS  rocket. This is NASA's most powerful rocket, designed to travel farther and longer than previous ships that were designed for humans. The anticipated event expects the entire world to tune in and celebrate this feat with the team at NASA.

During her time at Palmer Trinity School, Vicky excelled in the classroom. During her junior year, she earned the University of Miami Book Award awarded to juniors who exhibit outstanding leadership and academic excellence. As a senior, she received the Nathan Young Award and the medallion for Physics Honors. 

After graduating from Palmer Trinity in 2001, Vicky earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2005 and interned at Kennedy Space Center/Nasa that summer. Vicky went on to earn a MS from Georgia Institute of Technology and became one of the few women to join the team of engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center/NASA in 2008.

What makes Vicky's story extraordinary is that she has been able to accomplish all this despite the fact that she was born profoundly deaf. Vicky never let her impairment stop her from achieving anything she wanted. She learned to read lips at an early age and worked extra hard to excel in school. She turned her love of problem solving into a career as a NASA engineer. For most of the past several years, she worked on the newest rocket called Space Launch System.
 

In recent years, she has been a Lead Systems Engineer for an Environmental Control and Life Support Systems project that would be installed in International Space Station. Vicky believes that “hard work and persistence are key to achieving your dreams.“