Hypervelocity Impacd and Orbital Debris Office

NASA

Heather Cowardin Safeguards the Future of Space Exploration

As branch chief of the Hypervelocity Impact and Orbital Debris Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Dr. Heather Cowardin leads a team tasked with a critical mission: characterizing and mitigating orbital debris—space junk that poses a growing risk to satellites, spacecraft, and human spaceflight.  Long before Cowardin was a scientist safeguarding NASA’s mission, she was a young girl…