NASA honors Jefferson City native

Parachute engineer: 'Do what you really enjoy doing and do it to the best of your ability.'

Jefferson City native Elsa Hennings was recently honored for designing and testing the parachute assembly for NASA's newest manned space vehicle, the Orion.
Jefferson City native Elsa Hennings was recently honored for designing and testing the parachute assembly for NASA's newest manned space vehicle, the Orion.

NASA engineer Elsa Hennings has come a long way since she delivered papers for the News Tribune.

Hennings, a senior systems engineer with the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division's Escape, Parachute and Crashworthy Division (EPCD) in California, recently accepted a NASA Silver Achievement Medal.

The Jefferson City native got the award for designing and testing the parachute assembly for NASA's newest manned space vehicle, the Orion.

"I don't feel qualified to get an award; I get enough of an award just working with these folks," Hennings said. "However, it is nice to know people value my contributions and that the long days and nights I have stayed up worrying about how to fix things or coming up with new ideas are not a waste of time."

Although she was born in Iowa, Hennings' family moved to Jefferson City when she was 1, and Hennings still has fond memories of the Capital City.

"My parents still live here," she said. "In high school, I had teachers who were amazing in their ability to motivate. Sometimes that is what is missing in today's education world. I'm currently a school board president, so I know there's a lot of pressure on schools to do something extra. Fortunately, I had motivated teachers, and that's why I decided to go into engineering."

Hennings graduated from Jefferson City High School in 1978, went on to get a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Missouri in Columbia and was then hired at the weapons division in 1983.

The NASA silver medal is awarded to government and non-government individuals or teams by NASA center directors for stellar achievement that supports one or more of NASA's core values, according to NASA officials.

"I have learned a lot from working with the Navy that I can pass on to NASA, and I have learned a lot from NASA that I can pass on to the Navy," she said.

At the time the Orion program was started, NASA had no in-house parachute expertise, so they hired Hennings and another parachute expert as consultants. Hennings has consulted for NASA, the FAA and other Department of Defense facilities throughout her career. She is currently the program manager testing the parachute for use on the next Mars mission.

"My role on the Orion program has been more of a problem-solver using the resources and expertise that we have in the Navy," she said. "We can come up with solutions to a problem, sometimes before NASA realizes they exist. This has saved NASA a lot of down time. My job as the consultant for this program is to be the government's eyes and ears and make sure what the parachute contractor is telling us is correct and the best product possible is being built. I also coordinate the chase camera coverage during testing and assist in analyzing the data after every test."

Hennings has worked for more than 31 years at NAWCWD and is considered an expert in the parachute community.

"Skydiving is what led to me wanting to work on parachutes," she said. "I did my first jump in Moberly and fell in love with it."

"I can think of one pivotal moment in my career that made me decide to stay," Hennings added. "We were working on the Mars Pathfinder entry, descent and landing system. And during the first test, we experienced a parachute failure. It was very frustrating for us, because we really wanted to impress NASA with all the things we can do, but a smoking hole in the drop zone was not going over well. I remember thinking that I had a good idea. What had happened? So I drove over to where we had landed the release platform and I found that it was exactly what I thought, and it was my fault.

"As I drove back to the post-test meeting, I realized how to fix it, so when I arrived at the meeting, I was able to come in and say that I found the fault, that it was mine, and that I came up with a way to prevent it from happening again. I found out later that the Navy was impressed that someone would admit to that. I realized that with the culture of "let's find the problem, fix it and move on,' with a very high emphasis on ethics, I decided that I wanted to be part of an organization like this, so I stayed."

Hennings said she plans to continue her career until she has passed on her knowledge of parachutes to the next generation of engineers.

"I am one of the few that has stayed in my technical field for my entire career," she said. "It can have a wonderful payoff since you can become pretty darn good in that field. In parachutes, there is not always a lot of demand; it is a very small pond, so you can become a big fish in a hurry."

Hennings had some advice to share with young engineers and scientists.

"Do what you really enjoy doing, and do it to the best of your ability. Don't stop just because someone tells you that is good enough," she said. "Be honest, and don't cut corners just to save money or speed the process. In the parachute world, if you cut corners, you could be affecting someone's life."

"Jefferson City is a great place to be from," Hennings added. "The job may have forced me to move, but Missouri is always home to me."