Alice Bowman, the NASA New Horizons mission operations manager, at FCT

Alice Bowman, at Sala Multiusos at the FCT Library, 8th October, 2.30 pm.

Alice Bowman says she always wanted a career that was exciting, technically challenging “and not the same day in and day out”. 

She certainly found it. Whether it was the hard courses in school or the most puzzling technical challenges at work, Bowman has never shied away from the tougher path – but used these challenges to learn and gain new experience. Eventually, this led to the opportunity of a lifetime: leading the mission operations team that made history by “flying” the first spacecraft to Pluto.

Bowman, the New Horizons mission operations manager, covers her career voyage through the scope of NASA’s historic first mission to Pluto – which culminated with a flyby of the distant dwarf planet on July 14, 2015.