Jessica Wittner joined the U.S. Navy after graduation and became an aviation mechanic. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Arizona and a master’s degree from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. She became a test pilot and was project officer with Test and Evaluation Squadron VX-31, the Dust Devils, in China Lake. (NASA)
(Tribune News Service) — Jessica Wittner is getting some deserved time off — just a day or so to decompress with family before jumping back into the work of being one of NASA’s newest astronauts.
“I’m filled with excitement and energy right now,” Wittner told The Bee in a phone interview Tuesday, following a graduation ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
This is the dream scenario for the Clovis native and Buchanan High School graduate.
She was 12 when she first verbalized wanting to be an astronaut. She joined the U.S. Navy after graduation and became an aviation mechanic. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Arizona and a master’s degree from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School.
She became a test pilot and was project officer with Test and Evaluation Squadron VX-31, the Dust Devils, in China Lake. She served on engineering teams in the development and flight tests for the F/A-18E-F Super Hornet and was heading the the Strike Fighter Squadron VFA-151 at at Naval Air Station Lemoore when she was accepted by NASA.
Wittner is in rarefied company.
NASA has graduated just 360 NASA astronauts since the original “Mercury Seven” were chosen in 1959. That crew included John Glenn and Alan Shepard, who was the first American to travel into space.
Wittner’s training class, selected in 2021, was just 10 people chosen from a pool of 12,000 applicants.
Over the past two years, the astronauts completed training across five subject categories, according to NASA. They learned to operate and maintain International Space Station systems. They trained for spacewalks, learned Russian and robotics skills, and operated a T-38 supersonic training jet.
It was during her first run in an underground pool in a simulation of the ISS that Wittner felt the full impact of what it means to be an astronaut. Standing there in a full space suit, “that’s really when it starts to hit.”
Jessica Wittner, one of NASA’s newest astronauts. (NASA)
A trip to the moon?
Individual missions have yet to be assigned, but could involve anything from research aboard the International Space Station to launching commercial spacecraft, or deep-space missions to destinations including the moon, NASA said.
In 2017, the space agency launched the Artemis project, a series of new lunar missions with the ultimate goal of eventually launching a mission to Mars. An uncrewed test flight was launched in 2022.
A second, fly-by mission was scheduled to happen this year but was postponed until 2025.
“I would love to go to the moon,” says Wittner, knowing its the consensus feeling among her peers.
“I think you’re going to hear that from a lot of people.”
Of course, Wittner is a firm believer in following passions — and her passion is exploration in all of forms. Even though we’ve already been to the moon, she says, these next visits will unlock an amazing amount of new information and opportunity.
“That’s like the next frontier right now,” she says
“We know what questions need to be answered.”
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