• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2019

• San Diego State University, B.S. Mechanical Engineering, '21

• Host Institution: The Spaceship Company

• Mentor: José Hernández

Sarah Melissa Gomez is an aerospace engineer in the Space Systems Integration team at Parsons. In this role, she supports engineering activities for the integration of small satellites on various government missions, from mechanical design and analysis to testing and integration. Most recently, she contributed to the delivery of hardware that hosted cubesats on SBIRS GEO-5 and Landsat 9 missions. She graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from San Diego State University.

Raised in Mexico, Sarah found her interest in engineering after participating in her high school’s engineering program and joining their FIRST Robotics Competition team. At SDSU, Sarah was heavily involved in student activities including being President of the Mechatronics team to build autonomous underwater vehicles, and co-founding a joint chapter for Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) and Women of Aeronautics and Astronautics (WoAA). She also was Chair of the national Member Advancement subcommittee at WoAA in her final year.

As a Brooke Owens Fellow, Sarah interned at The Spaceship Company (now part of Virgin Galactic), in which she evaluated mechanical hardware for VSS Unity’s flight control system and developed test requirements for the next spaceships’ reaction control systems. Her past work experiences include developing planetary excavation tools for the Europa Lander pre-project at NASA JPL, designing an optical testing fixture for maritime systems at NIWC, and implementing improved asset tracking methods at NASA Stennis Space Center, among others. Her passion for space developed during her NASA internship after watching rocket engine tests at Stennis.

Sarah is excited to continue her career in the space industry and looks forward to staying involved in diversity efforts for STEM and aerospace fields. In her free time, she enjoys doing art, hiking, watching anime and going to museums.