About Morgenstern Engineering
For 35 years, Ms. Wendy Morgenstern served at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), a
s a technical leader in the development, launch, and commissioning of multiple mission endeavors, including the Lead Systems Engineering and Technical Authority for On-Orbit Servicing Assembly and Manufacturing (OSAM-1) mission and the Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) Systems Engineer for both Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) four observatory fleet and the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). She also served the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) as a Systems Engineering (SE) Technical Discipline Deputy and Subject Matter Expert, advising Agency leadership on optimizing SE practices and conducting independent technical assessment on the Agency’s most complex engineering challenges.
Her accomplishments include Division Chief Engineer for GSFC’s Instrument Systems and Technology Division, Launch Director for MMS, lead systems engineer for Astrophysics (PRAXyS) and Heliophysics (HELIX) proposals, and systems engineer for GSFC’s first in-house CubeSat (Dellingr). Early in her career, she served as dual lead for Triana (later DSCOVR) Attitude Control Subsystem (ACS) analysis and flight software teams and worked ACS development for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and the X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE).
She frequently serves as an independent reviewer including Standing Review Board (SRB) Chair for HelioSwarm, Deputy Chair for PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem), SRB member for Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat-2), and numerous element reviews for a wide range of mission such as Global Precipitation Mission (GPM), Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging (DaVINCI), Lucy, and Capture, Containment, and Return System (CCRS) as well as independent anomaly investigations for Roman Space Telescope (RST) and Canada’s RadarSat.
Her extensive experience leading multi-discipline teams has been recognized with a variety of accolades, including three NASA Outstanding Leadership Medals (2009, 2016, 2022), a NASA Exceptional Service Medal (2013), a Flight Projects Mentoring Peer Award, and three Robert H. Goddard Exceptional Achievement Awards for Engineering Excellence, Leadership, and Mentoring, respectively as well as four NASA Honor awards for teamwork achievements.
Ms. Morgenstern graduated Summa Cum Laude from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University Aerospace Engineering in 1994 and subsequently received her Master of Science (M.S.) in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, Magna Cum Laude, in 1999.
