September 2022

The College of Engineers of Venezuela through its Twitter account @CIVoficial expressed: “As much science fiction as it may seem, the story is real. Nathalie Quintero, a Venezuelan aerospace engineer working on one of the most important missions in the NASA in this century: the return of humanity to the Moon and the future expedition to Mars”.

More regarding Natalie

Nathalie Quintero grew up in Caracas and graduated from high school at Colegio Las Cumbres.

His mother is an industrial engineer from El Salvador and his father is a retired Venezuelan naval pilot. Both were witnesses (on television) of the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969 and always encouraged her in the study of science.

“My mom is a migrant. She migrated from El Salvador to Venezuela in the 1970s, at the same age that I immigrated to the United States. She adopted Venezuela as her country and is 100% Venezuelan. At that time, there were not many women studying engineering, but she always liked it and she never saw it as an impediment”.

In 2011 he came to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a residential campus in Daytona, Florida, majoring in careers in the arts, sciences, aviation, business, and engineering related to the aviation industry.

In 2015, Nathalie earned her BS in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle and in 2019, an MS in Systems Engineering from Cornell University.

In 2016, her profile landed in the right hands and, following the internships, she officially began working full-time as a systems engineer at The Boeing Company, for the company’s SLS project. NASA.

“I have been in the project since 2015, when I did internships. Before joining SLS, I looked for various opportunities because I wanted to work on a project related to space and in a warmer climate, but there weren’t that many opportunities available at the time.”

“I kept insisting, until they finally interviewed me and gave me the offer: Do you want to do an internship at the Kennedy Space Center? and I said: Of course!

“I have been in Florida for ten years since I migrated here from Venezuela and it is the closest thing to what it would be like to be warm in the Caribbean. Kennedy Space Center is one of the largest NASA centers, first; and, second, it is one of the most historic, because that is where all the missions to the Moon have been launched”.

“I was visualizing it. I remember that I had NASA and Boeing on my vision board long before I joined. It’s crazy when you look at the past and say: well, everything that is there I have fulfilled. They told me it was a project at the Kennedy Space Center and I said yes without thinking regarding it, being a student.”

Nathalie was the first Latina to be awarded Boeing’s Florida Space Coast Operations (FSCO) Engineer of the Year in 2021, she has witnessed the SLS rocket step by step, from the first 3D models to what it is today: a rocket assembled in waiting for more tests to launch it on its first mission this Saturday.

How will they get to the Moon once more?

With the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, the same one where Nathalie works and which will carry the Orion capsule with the future explorers on board.

However, before a new moon landing, there will be two missions around the Moon to test deep space exploration systems: Artemis I will be the first uncrewed flight to test the operation of the SLS together with Orion; Artemis II, the first test flight of the SLS and crewed Orion before Artemis III, set foot on lunar soil.

STEM for Aerospace

Nathalie also has a creative and artistic side, like dancing flamenco. In fact, when she was little, she received paintings and many stationery items as gifts, something that currently makes her consider that the arts should be linked to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers.

This STEM-Arts connection is demonstrated through its bilingual STEM for Aerospace project, aimed at promoting STEM careers and inspiring youth in the aerospace industry.

“With my project I have realized that there are quite a few people interested in Venezuela. I remember that when I was studying at school I said that I wanted to work at NASA and people asked me if I was crazy. But no, what’s up, there are people who don’t believe in you and that’s going to happen. But I was surprised because nowadays there are more people interested in space, and we see new companies like SpaceX or Blue Origin investing in this industry, which has made exploration affordable and closer.”

The key: believe in yourself

“Be consistent, be positive and don’t stop fighting for your dreams. There are going to be challenges along the way, like everything, but you always have to believe in yourself and the dream you have”.

“My advice to girls is that it doesn’t matter if someone tells you that this isn’t for you, that you can’t, that you come from I don’t know where and no one can do it; those are just noises on the road, because when you have clear goals and want something, the paths open to achieve it”.