NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Betty Humphery
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
betty.b.humphery@nasa.gov

News release: 07-099


HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – NASA engineer Mary Hovater, a native of Cullman, Ala., has received a Women’s Equality Day award for exceptional professional service.

The award was presented by the Team Redstone Federal Women’s Program, which includes the U.S. Army Garrison at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.

Hovater is a systems engineer for the Science and Mission Systems Office at the Marshall Center. She coordinates the work of engineers across multiple Marshall Center organizations that test and analyze components of the Orion crew exploration vehicle's Launch Abort System. The system is a primary safety feature designed to protect future astronauts riding NASA's Ares I launch vehicle to space by separating Orion from the rocket in the event of a mishap during launch or ascent. Hovater was named to her position of Crew Exploration Vehicle/Launch Abort System Test and Verification Level II Interfaces lead in August. She has been an engineer on the project since 2006.

Hovater joined NASA in 1993 as a student trainee in the Marshall Center's Materials and Processes Laboratory. In 1994, as an electronics technician in the Hypervelocity Impact Facility, she assisted in the completion of more than 200 hypervelocity tests – accelerating particles to more than 1.2 miles (2 km) per second to simulate micrometeoroid and orbital debris strikes on the space shuttle’s heat-resistant, protective tiles and test spacecraft shielding designs, like those on the International Space Station.

From 1995-1998, she was a materials engineering technician in the Hypervelocity Impact Facility. She was promoted to range engineer in 1998, supporting testing of interactions between high-voltage solar cell arrays and superheated plasma, and assisting with design and fabrication of test articles and diagnostics systems.

Hovater was senior range engineer in Marshall's Impact Testing Facility from 2001- 2006. Under her direction, the facility’s customer base doubled, increasing income by more than 100 percent. After serving as a test and analysis liaison for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board in 2003, she became lead for debris impact testing of shuttle propulsion elements.

Hovater earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics from Athens State University in Athens, Ala., in 1998; and a master’s degree in physics from the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 2005.

She has earned nearly two-dozen honors and awards during her career, including selection in 2005 as one of the top 50 professionals in the Madison, N.Y., “Who’s Who” publication. She is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society and National Scholars Honor Society. Hovater also has authored or co-authored nine technical publications.

She was honored with a Women’s Equality Day award on Aug. 23 at the annual Women’s Equality Day luncheon and awards ceremony, hosted by the Team Redstone Federal Women’s Program. Team Redstone is an organization comprised of many federal agencies located offsite and on Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville.

The Women’s Equality Day awards recognize outstanding federal employees in professional, administrative and supervisory capacities. The event coincides with the anniversary of the 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote.

Hovater has two sons and lives in Cullman.

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