Tracy Drain is a flight systems engineer who has helped develop, test, and operate a variety of robotic spacecraft for deep space exploration in a career spanning more than two decades.
After obtaining B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kentucky and Georgia Tech respectively and interning at the NASA Langley Research Center as an undergraduate student, she landed a full-time position on the engineering staff at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2000.
She is a 2024 National Geographic Society Wayfinder Award recipient, and she is currently the lead flight systems engineer on the Europa Clipper mission, which should arrive at Jupiter in 2030.
