Nyla Trumbach was very nervous Aug. 16, 2012. It was rocket engine test day at Stennis Space Center. She had worked in supporting roles for other such engine test, but today, she was leading the way.
“My heart was pounding out of my chest,” she said. “Being nervous is not a bad thing. Something might be wrong with you if you were not nervous about it.”
Little did Trumbach know that she would be part of making history that day at Stennis Space Center, as she and Rosa Obregon became the first time two female engineers to serve as test conductors for engine tests on the same day. It also marked the first time two large-engine tests were completed simultaneously by Stennis teams.
Trumbach led the J-2X engine hot fire on the A-1 Test Stand, now known as the Fred Haise Test Stand, while Obregon conducted the Aerojet AJ26 rocket engine test on the E-1 Test Stand.
In what traditionally had been a male role, two female test conductors helped show what was possible. For Trumbach, a key was believing the only barriers she faced were those she put on herself.
“When it comes down to it, if you are capable and you work hard and you do a good job, there should be no limit,” she said.
Trumbach and Obregon followed in the footsteps of Elizabeth Messer, who became the first NASA female test conductor at Stennis Space Center in 2000. Messer led testing of a 250,000-pound-thrust hybrid rocket motor for the Hybrid Demonstration Program on the E-1 Test Stand.
Obregon has since moved on to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Trumbach, a test operations engineer for Lockheed Martin at the time of the 2012 test, is now NASA’s lead mechanical test operations engineer on the Fred Haise Test Stand. She leads a team of six mechanical engineers that supports testing RS-25 engines for the Artemis space mission.
Since 2012, Trumbach has conducted 10 tests, including what she called one of the most exciting efforts the test team worked on with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The effort involved testing the Aerojet Rocketdyne AR-22 rocket engine 10 times in 10 days with around-the-clock operations.
For the Space Launch System (SLS) Green Run core stage testing, Trumbach was one of two female engineers, along with Angelica Baker, who served as liquid hydrogen transfer engineers. Baker now works at Kennedy Space Center, where she will follow SLS all the way to launch.
Trumbach worked in many supporting roles to reach her goal of becoming test conductor for the first time 10 years ago. She remembers the support of the test team leading up to the record-setting day.
“When you sit and think about what you’re actually doing, it’s pretty cool,” Trumbach said. “It’s fun when you have problems to figure out and find the answer to, going out and troubleshooting it and being the one that comes up with the right answer or sitting down as a team and talking back-and-forth to find out answers to a problem, those things are fun. One of the best things about this job is the people. The people out here, we are like family. We really are. There are great people that work out here.”
It was a similar kind of support and encouragement she received from family growing up that Trumbach hopes will inspire young girls to realize their dreams as NASA continues to inspire the world through discovery.
“My mom always told me I could do whatever I wanted to do,” Trumbach said. “Work hard, try hard, put your mind to it, you can be and do whatever you want to do. You can be independent and be able to take care of yourself. That’s how I was raised.
“For mothers, encourage your daughters to reach for the stars, to go for what they are interested in.”
For information about Stennis Space Center, visit:
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C. Lacy Thompson
Stennis Space Center, Bay St. Louis, Miss.
228-363-5499
calvin.l.thompson@nasa.gov