• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2017

• Texas A&M University, B.S. Aerospace Engineering, ‘19

• Host Institution: The Aerospace Corporation

• Mentor: Danielle Wood

Makiah Eustice is an aerospace engineer, service member, musician, and aspiring space industry leader. She received a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University and completed the Space Studies program at the International Space University. Recently received the 24 Under 24 Leaders and Innovators in STEAM and Space Award , she has advocated for human space presence from her college town to austere environments nationwide.

She was incredibly inspired from her experience in adult Space Camp after her first year in college. Makiah joined mission support for the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) rotational crews that perform simulate Mars mission in Utah. She was selected for Crew 200 as Greenhouse officer in 2018 and the Mars Academy TAMUSEDS mission in 2019 as Commander. In 2020, she lived and worked in the Hawaii facility, HI-SEAS, with an All-women crew, for a grand total of 27 days in simulation. She is currently investigating effective non-verbal communication methods on EVA surface operations.

Makiah was selected as a Brooke Owens Fellow in 2017 and worked in systems engineering at the Aerospace Corporation. At Texas A&M, Makiah participated in the Corps of Cadets, Air Force ROTC, and SEDS (Student for the Exploration and Development of Space). She was project director of the student SEDS chapter before becoming President and founding the Aggie Astronaut Corps program. She worked in research on shape memory alloy applications. She was also committed to outreach, doing activities with local schools and using social media as a platform for her space exploration journey.

In the Air Force, Makiah works as a structural engineer on the C-5 Super Galaxy. She hopes to pursue human factors, flight test engineering, and space policy while supporting space analog and microgravity research in the future. In her downtime, you will find her playing the Mountain Dulcimer!