Lisa Hardaway (1966–2017) was an American aerospace engineer and program manager for an instrument on the

New Horizons ''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research ...

spacecraft to Pluto and Beyond. Among her awards, she was named Engineer of the Year for 2015–2016 by the Colorado

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA is the U.S. representative on the International Astronautical Federation and the International Council of ...

Life

Hardaway graduated from

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, and

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

. She worked for

Ball Aerospace Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. is an American manufacturer of spacecraft, components and instruments for national defense, civil space and commercial space applications. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ball Corporation (NYSE: BAL ...

. She was program manager for

RALPH Ralph (pronounced ; or ,) is a male given name of English, Scottish and Irish origin, derived from the Old English ''Rædwulf'' and Radulf, cognate with the Old Norse ''Raðulfr'' (''rað'' "counsel" and ''ulfr'' "wolf"). The most common forms ...

, on the ''

'' mission. She is survived by her husband, James, and two children. In the summer of 2017, NASA renamed the LEISA spectrometer on ''New Horizons'' to be the Lisa Hardaway Infrared Mapping Spectrometer in her honor.

Awards and honors

* Lisa Hardaway was named "Engineer of the Year" for 2015–2016 by Colorado

. * Asteroid 161699 Lisahardaway was named in her memory. The official was published by the

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Function ...

on 25 September 2018 (). * A crater on

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...

, Hardaway Crater, was also named in her honor in 2021.

References

External links

* https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/gone-in-2017-12-trailblazing-women-in-stem/ * https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/07/the-camera-behind-the-new-horizons-pluto-photos-ralph/398549/ * https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ball-aerospaces-lisa-hardaway-honored-for-exceptional-leadership-by-women-in-aerospace-300163309.html * https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-new-horizons-mission-honors-memory-of-engineer-lisa-hardaway 1966 births 2017 deaths American aerospace engineers New Horizons Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Stanford University alumni University of Colorado alumni {{US-engineer-stub