Rocket woman

As NASA prepares to return to the Moon, the space agency is profiling key people in its Artemis Program. Recently, the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, shined a spotlight on Sarah Ryan ’19, the former president of the Case Rocket Team.

Five years after graduating, Ryan is the Raptor Engine Lead for NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) team. She’s responsible for ensuring that SpaceX technology matches NASA’s needs and goals.

SpaceX, the private space company, will land astronauts on the Moon for NASA’s Artemis III and Artemis IV missions, using a spacecraft called Starship. The Raptor rocket engine powers Starship as well as its Super Heavy rocket, the reusable first stage. With Artemis, NASA will explore more of the Moon than ever before, beginning in the fall of 2025. Astronauts are expected to learn how to live and work away from home and prepare for future human exploration of Mars.

“My team looks at how the components of the Raptor engine work together,” Ryan explained. “Then, we evaluate the performance of the full system to make sure it will accomplish the NASA HLS and Artemis missions. I get to see lots of pieces and parts of the puzzle and then look at the system as a whole to make sure it meets NASA’s needs.”

While earning duel degrees in aerospace engineering and mechanical engineering at Case, Ryan was active on the Case Rocket Team and served as team president her senior year. She also interned at NASA Marshall. Recently, she returned to NASA Marshall as part of its Engine Systems branch, armed with a master’s degree in aerospace systems from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

“My favorite tasks are the ones that most resemble a puzzle,” Ryan said. “If we’re investigating an issue and have a lot of information to assess, I love putting all the pieces together and figuring out what happened, why, and the path forward.”