Cosmic Adventures

Tracy Drain is a systems engineer with a career steeped in deep space exploration. In her 20+ years in the aerospace field, she has helped to develop and/or operate robotic spacecraft including the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Kepler mission in its hunt for exoplanets, the Juno mission orbiting Jupiter, and the Psyche mission on its way to an asteroid. Drain recently served as the lead flight systems engineer for the Europa Clipper mission slated to launch in October 2024. She has now taken on the role of “Launch to Mars” mission manager for Clipper—and will lead the operations team through the first four months of checkouts and the Mars flyby gravity assist, a key milestone in the spacecraft’s five-and-a-half-year journey to the Jovian system. A lifelong learner, Drain loves encouraging people to nurture their curiosity and explore the wonders that surround us. She serves on the planning committee for the National Academy of Science’s Science and Entertainment Exchange and on the advisory board of Arizona State University’s Interplanetary Initiative. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, mentoring, watching sci-fi, documentaries, and K-dramas, and studying languages (Spanish and Korean). She works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Tracy Drain is a recipient of the 2024 Wayfinder Award presented by Kia.