NASA’s Sandra Irish wins award for contribution to James Webb Telescope

The award recognises Irish’s visionary contributions to the development, testing, transport, and launch of NASA’s premier space telescope since 2006. 

The medal was awarded during the World’s Largest Conference for Women in Engineering and Technology or WE23, which took place on 26-28 October in Los Angeles.

The Resnik Challenger Medal was established in 1986 to honour visionary contributions to space programmes to an individual who identifies as a woman with at least 10 years of experience. This award acknowledges a specific engineering breakthrough or achievement that has expanded the horizons of human activities in space.

As an engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for over 40 years, Irish’s mechanical systems expertise has helped to ensure the successful operation of many NASA programs including the Webb telescope.

As Webb’s Lead Structures Engineer, Irish led a group of 12 engineers that performed meticulous analysis and testing which helped confirm that the observatory’s mechanical design was fit to survive the rigours of spaceflight and on-orbit operations. 

While Irish’s primary focus was on preparing the telescope for a long life of service in space, she was also intimately involved in safely transporting the telescope to various locations around the United States for testing and assembly, and ultimately to its final destination where it launched from Europe’s Spaceport located near Kourou, French Guiana.

Her steadfast dedication and expansive mechanical systems knowledge were key factors in the success of the notedly complex Webb mission. In addition to performing her duties on Webb, she served, and still actively serves, as the group lead for NASA Goddard’s mechanical systems analysis and simulation branch.

“I am honoured to be this year’s recipient of SWE’s Resnik Challenger Medal Award for my role in Webb,” said Irish. “For 16 years of my engineering career at NASA, I worked on designing, building, testing, and delivering the most amazing telescope that NASA has ever launched into space. 

“It was a joy to lead Webb’s structures team of such dedicated and talented engineers. Each day, we tackled challenging design and test problems together, which resulted in a telescope that is successfully operating a million miles away! 

“I smile every time a new image or discovery is shared with the world. It was wonderful to have been a part of the Webb team!”