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Rachel Thomas

  • Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2020

  • Georgia Institute of Technology, Aerospace Engineering, ‘22

  • Host Institution: United Launch Alliance

  • Mentor: Vanessa Aponte-Williams

Rachel Thomas is currently studying Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA. Since before she could remember, she spent her birthdays staring at the sky watching the Perseid meteor shower light up the night. As she got older, she translated her wonder into a love for aerospace engineering.

At Georgia Tech, Rachel spends her time outside of class building two-stage high altitude rockets for the Georgia Tech Experimental Rocketry (GTXR) team, where she currently leads the propulsion sub-team focused on developing and testing 6-in diameter solid rocket motors. Her team is the first and only solid rocket motor program at Georgia Tech. She can often be found in the machine shop turning down metal components on a lathe or tinkering with newly finished parts. She also does research on campus, analyzing cross-frequency interactions in gas turbine combustors and studying bioregenerative life support systems for Mars habitats. She loves helping students create prototypes and personal projects at the Aero Maker Space and presents space-themed events through Georgia Outreach Team for Space.

Beyond engineering, Rachel plays for the Georgia Tech Women’s Club Basketball team, hikes around in the Rocky Mountains outside Boulder, CO whenever she finds time to go home, and scuba dives with her family.

In 2019, she gained experience with laser diagnostic systems as a National Ignition Facility (NIF) intern at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. As a Brooke Owens Fellow, Rachel interned with United Launch Alliance on the Centaur V propulsion team.