Upcoming Events & Activities

Fall 2024 Kickoff Event

Purdue University is gearing up to host its annual kick-off event for Leading Women Toward Space Careers in September. This unique program connects female undergraduate and graduate students with mentors in space-related fields. The mentors, who are all established professionals in the space industry, come from diverse backgrounds, including NASA, Sierra Space, and policy roles in Washington, D.C.

The evening event will feature a public address by Sharon Conover, system director for NASA Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD) with The Aerospace Corporation, and Joan Higginbotham, NASA astronaut. The event takes place in The Honors College and Residences North (HCRN) building in Honors Hall at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 5 and is free to the public, though registration is required.

Conover served as NASA’s ISS vehicle office acquisition manager for the commercialization of low earth orbit and human spaceflight habitation demonstrations on the International Space Station. She previously served as the director of payload integration and design for the Orbital Reef Space Station. Conover began her new position of system director for the NASA Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD) at The Aerospace Corporation in July 2024.

Higginbotham, an electrical engineer and a former NASA astronaut, flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-116 as a mission specialist and is the third African American woman to go into space, after Mae Jemison and Stephanie Wilson. She actively participated in 53 space shuttle launches during her 9-year tenure at Kennedy Space Center before being selected as an astronaut in 1996. In April of 2022, after 35 years in government service and the energy, retail and aerospace sectors, Higginbotham opened an aerospace consulting firm, Joan Higginbotham Ad Astra, LLC.

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