Payton Barnwell is a mechanical engineer with a degree from Florida Polytechnic University (’19). Her passion for space exploration has brought unique opportunities such as working on innovative solutions to traditional astronaut nutrition at NASA Kennedy Space Center, designing an Air Force designated X-Plane hypersonic research program at Generation Orbit as a 2018 Brooke Owens Fellow, and working in Mission Control for SpaceShip2 at Virgin Galactic. Her current role is as a Customer Engineer leading aerospace efforts at First Resonance.

Payton’s diverse aerospace experiences and research have shown her how important the cross-pollination of ideas and backgrounds is to move industries and societies forward. She hopes to utilize her multidisciplinary background and perspectives to improve humankind's experiences on Earth and in space. Through professional experiences at work or roles such as Yuri’s Night Ambassador (KSC 2018, LA 2020), or co-manager of the United Nation's SGAC SGx 2021 conference, she hopes to share her stories and passion for the industry with audiences of all levels.

Payton’s side hobbies include communicating with the greater space community on Twitter, year-long informal recruitment for the Brooke Owens Fellowship, and constantly attempting to be successful at homemade pasta making. You can currently find her in Los Angeles working to empower the creators of next-generation hardware to build better at First Resonance.

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