Alisa M. Hawkins

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About

Alisa M. Hawkins is a distinguished aerospace engineer and mission operations leader whose work has significantly advanced our understanding of lunar environments and deep-space mission architecture. Her primary research areas encompass spacecraft operations, mission design, and the management of complex, high-stakes spaceflight programs. Hawkins is best known for her pivotal role in NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission, where she served as the mission operations manager. Her most cited paper, "Operating LADEE: Mission architecture, challenges, anomalies, and successes" (2015), provides an authoritative account of the technical hurdles and operational triumphs of the mission, detailing how her team navigated anomalies to achieve LADEE’s dual goals: characterizing the tenuous lunar atmosphere and demonstrating laser communication technology. With over a decade of contributions to NASA’s Exploration Systems Development, Hawkins has been instrumental in shaping operational frameworks for robotic and crewed missions. Her work has garnered widespread recognition, including multiple NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals, and her publications continue to inform best practices in mission operations, inspiring the next generation of aerospace professionals to tackle the challenges of space exploration.