As a young girl raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, Lindsey Waitt dreamed of working for NASA. Her dream is now a reality as she embarks on her role as a NASA test project engineer with the Artemis launch team – an integral part of the agency’s missions that will enable humans to return to the surface of the Moon after launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
When she was in middle school in the late 1990’s, Waitt recalls meeting NASA Space Shuttle astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and Albert Sacco, Jr., a former professor at the college, during a visit to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Massachusetts. She was inspired while listening to them recount their spaceflight experiences including an experiment on conducting research for growing cells on the Moon. She even posed for a picture and got their autographs. Little did young Waitt know, these would not be the only astronauts she would meet.
Her passion for learning about all things space and engineering led Waitt back to WPI where she studied engineering, absorbing different disciplines. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in aerospace engineering and she left the school fueled by her passion to be a part of America’s space agency.
