• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2018

• Iowa State University, Materials Engineering and Religious Studies, '21

• Host Institution: Mojave Air and Space Port

• Mentor: George Whitesides

Madison Harrington is currently a Test Engineer at the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) after having graduated in both Materials Engineering and Religious Studies at Iowa State University. She was exposed to aviation through her dad who flew F-16s in the Air Guard and now the Boeing 777 for FedEx. Both of her parents supported and encouraged Madison to get her private pilot's license in high school. Space was a passion that came naturally from growing up in an aerospace oriented family.

Madison began her position as a Test Engineer in 2021 and supports test efforts on military and defense aircraft through the IAS group at SNC. Prior to this full-time position, Madison co-oped at Sierra Space (SNC at the time) in Madison, WI as a Materials Engineer on the Dream Chaser vehicle's propulsion and environmental systems.

At Iowa State, Madison began her freshman year in the Navy ROTC program and was exposed to various Navy’s ships, submarines, aviation squadrons, and the Marine Corps while in San Diego on CORTRAMID. Wanting to be more directly involved in the aerospace industry, Madison decided to discontinue her involvement in ROTC.

While at university, Madison was an Undergraduate Researcher for two projects. The first as Pilot in Command on a team of undergraduates developing an Open Source fixed-wing UAS (Unmanned Aerial System) for public and university use through the Aerospace Engineering department. More recently, Madison was involved in research through the Materials Engineering department at ISU and provided metallurgical support in characterizing additively manufactured Titanium alloys in order to understand the relationship between microstructural features and mechanical behavior. In this group, Madison served primarily as an SEM microscopist and led efforts on various characterization techniques while also supporting other projects studying fatigue and nano-scale 3D modeling using Photogrammetry.

Madison took part in the Iowa State Spaceflight Operations Workshop in 2019 as a crew member and learned about group dynamics in various stress-simulating scenarios, including getting scuba certified, participating in VR and aircraft simulations, and a 4 day backpacking trip along the Superior Hiking Trail. This fast-paced workshop taught crews how to work together operationally and demonstrate leadership throughout the activities. Madison was a tutor throughout her years at school and was the recipient of the Iowa State University Scholarship for Competitive Excellence and the Joan Dee Rottler Scholarship. Her junior year, Madison studied abroad at the University of Birmingham in Birmingham, England and traveled to 11 countries in Europe during the experience.

As a Brooke Owens Fellow, Madison was hosted at Mojave Air and Space Port (MASP) and both learned more about the NewSpace industry and participated in the history of “firsts” out in the Mojave desert. While at MASP, Madison toured customer facilities, took part in the National Test Pilot School’s flight camp, attended the Space Frontier Foundation’s NewSpace conference in Seattle, witnessed flight test and launch, and was involved in helping promote MASP through various marketing and operational projects throughout the summer.

The Brooke Owens Fellowship continues to encourage Madison to become involved with outreach, and she is particularly interested in normalizing aspects of wellness and health amongst her peers and younger generations, while hoping to spread her enthusiasm for space to everyone she encounters. Apart from becoming increasingly involved in outreach, Madison plans to become a space explorer, focusing on obtaining breadth of experience and developing operational skills.