TRACY DRAIN

Chief Engineer NASA Europa Clipper Mission

Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, Tracy Drain has always had a fascination with the stars.

A graduate of the University of Kentucky and the Georgia Institute of Technology with a B.S. and M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering, Drain joined the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab to begin work on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Since its launch, which Drain was instrumental in preparing for and securing, the MRO has been a critical data relay point for other exploratory missions on the red planet. After working for NASA for more than 17 years, she has held senior positions in teams that have overseen the Kepler Project, the Juno Orbiter Mission, and, most recently, the Psyche Mission. For her work on the Psyche Mission, she acts as a Technical Group Supervisor and manages a team of physicists and engineers as they plan to study the solar system’s largest metal asteroid.

She lives in Pasadena, CA, where she continues her work in the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab.

To learn more, check out our blog KTW Stem Spotlight: NASA Lead Engineer Tracy Drain.