Who Is Charlie Blackwell-Thompson? NASA's First Female Launch Director

Engineer Charlie Blackwell-Thompson made history as the first woman to serve as a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launch director. The NASA engineer is leading the team that is responsible for sending Artemis I to space.

The Artemis I rocket was at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and is preparing for launch. Today, Artemis I was successfully launched under the direction of the launch director Blackwell-Thompson.

Charlie Blackwell-Thompson has worked in spaceflight for more than 30 years. As the launch director, she was the boss of the “firing room” during the countdown to ignition.

Blackwell-Thomspon said, “Firsts don’t come along that often and to be at the beginning of a program that is going to take the first woman and the next man back to the Moon is pretty special”.

Suggested Reading: First Italian Woman Astronaut In Space Carries Lookalike Barbie To Inspire Girls In STEM

Who Is Charlie Blackwell-Thompson?

• Charlie Blackwell-Thompson is an engineer who served as the launch director for NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program based at the John F Kennedy Space Center.
• Blackwell-Thompson oversaw the countdown and liftoff of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft during the first flight test, Artemis I.
• The engineer was inspired by the idea of space exploration when she watched the Saturn V launches.
• She got her bachelor’s degree of computer engineering from Clemson University in 1988.
• Blackwell-Thompson visited a firing room in the Launch Control Center during her senior year at college during her job interview.
• This helped her realise she wanted to work in that room.
• In 1988, she joined The Boeing Company as a payload flight software at NASA KSC.
• Blackwell-Thompson worked as the lead in the Electrical Integration Office and the ground operations integration lead engineer for the Orbital Space Plane.
• In 2004, she began her NASA career as a test director in the Launch and Landing Division.
• In 2016, she was named Launch Director for SLS/Orion, making her the first woman to serve as a NASA launch director.
• Blackwell-Thompson said that she expects 30 percent of her team to be women engineers.
• The engineer holds multiple patents related to launch vehicle interface standardisation concepts and command and control methods and systems.