Spelman/Georgia Tech Dual Degree Grad Helped Build Heat Shield That Can Keep Astronauts Alive on Mars

Tawnya Plummer Laughinghouse is Manager of the Technology Demonstration Missions (TDM) Program Office at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, AL. TDM is the largest program in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, with an annual budget approaching $500M.

In the 3 years that Tawnya has served as manager for TDM, the program has launched six (6) technologies to space: Robotic Refueling Mission 3, Deep Space Atomic Clock, Green Propellant Infusion Mission, Terrain Relative Navigation, Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment, and most recently, Laser Communications Relay Demonstration on December 7, 2021. 

Prior to joining the TDM Program in 2017, Tawnya spent over 12 years as a Materials Engineer with the NASA MSFC Materials and Processes Laboratory. Before joining NASA in 2004, she worked as a process chemist and product engineer in the manufacturing industry. A recipient of the NASA Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) scholarship, Tawnya earned a B.S. Degree in Chemistry with honors from Spelman College, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Tech. 

Tawnya also holds a Master of Science in Management from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Tawnya is a graduate of various early-career and mid-level leadership development programs at NASA and the US Army Aviation and Missile Command. 

She is married with 2 amazing children.

Read Interview at NASA.gov

More News from Columbus

• The Story of Professor Frank R. Lampkin by Columbus Native Benjamin Watson Nearly 100 Years Ago, Black Columbusites Win the Right to Educate Their Own Children
• Georgia Health Department Ousts Entire Maternal Maternity Review Committee After Confidential Leak It Was Shown That The Deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller were Both Preventable