When Concha Reid grew up in St. Thomas, she spent nights looking up at the bright stars and wondered to herself if she could get closer to them. She didn’t know back then that one day, she would work at NASA, helping humans do just that.
“As a little girl like most people did, I would look up at the stars and just dream of possibilities. Like, “Oh what if I could go there, what if I could get a little closer to some of these planets,” so that was always in my heart,” said Concha Reid, the Deputy Program Manager of NASA Radioisotope Power Systems.
In Reid’s role and efforts at NASA, she’s helping bring humans back to the moon. She’s spent the last several years helping NASA launch its Artemis Program (I and II), with Artemis I launching last November in 2022. In this historic mission, Reid helped coordinate the deliveries of the Entry Systems Modeling for Artemis I and II from Europe to the NASA Kennedy Space Center to prepare for the launch. These Entry Systems Modelings are critical to predicting the performance of the Orion spacecraft in extreme atmospheric conditions as it travels to land on a planet.
“For about six years, I had a role as the delivery manager for hardware and software for the European Service Module. It was built for us by the European Space Agency and their contractor airbus, but I worked very closely with my counterparts there to ensure that we could get that European Service Module ready for delivery and get it delivered here to the Kennedy Space Center so that it could then get integrated with the rest of the Orion. So I would say that’s the most impactful thing that I’ve done,” said Reid.
The Artemis program marked the return of lunar exploration for NASA, according to the agency. Artemis I was a historic trip, rocketing around the moon with 8.8 million pounds of thrust, and landed back on Dec. 11, 2022. NASA is now gearing up for the Artemis II mission, which will carry a crew and launch in 2024, says NASA.
“I’ve put my fingerprint let’s say on the next generation of human explorers. And God-willing within the next few years, we’ll be able to land the next humans on the moon and the first African-American and the first female astronaut. I’ll be watching those things proudly knowing that I had a big role to play in having those things occur,” said Reid.
Reid recalls growing up in St. Thomas, being one of eight children, and loving her classes in science and math. Even doing math problems for fun, she says. After graduating from Charlotte Amalie High School class of 1986, she graduated from Louisiana State University with a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering. She went on to study at Virginia Tech and got a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering, with an emphasis on power systems and alternate energy sources.
“I do credit a lot, my parents, for inspiring me to pursue a higher education. I also had some wonderful teachers in the education system in the Virgin Islands, and most of all Mr. Walters, who was my chemistry and physics teacher at Charlotte Amalie High School, as well as all of the teachers at all the schools that I went to in the Virgin Islands. I would just want all teachers to be inspired and encouraged, that the work they do is so important. They are so important to inspire the next generations to achieve great things,” said Reid.
In addition to NASA and helping launch space missions, Reid is passionate about helping more young people get involved in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). She says a great way for students to connect with NASA is through its Power to Explore Challenge.
“The Power to Explore Challenge is a contest that the radioisotope power system program at NASA is hosting for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. And this is an opportunity to learn a little more about the radioisotope power systems that we use in space. And they can actually imagine a mission that they can say, ‘oh I would like to go and explore Uranus,’ for instance, and they can write a 200-word essay to tell us about how they would use a power system to go and explore Uranus,” said Reid.
“We have lots of different prizes, everybody who participates gets a little prize and an opportunity to have a virtual session with a NASA expert. And a few lucky winners will even win a trip to come to NASA,” she said.
Reid, who’s worked at NASA for over 20 years, says she encourages students who have dreams of working at NASA or in STEM to keep pursuing education available to them and continue moving forward.
“Take advantage of opportunities to go even further. If you feel you’ve taken everything the high school has to offer, then go explore the university, explore online courses, see how you can go even further,” said Reid.
“I really am proud that I had an opportunity to have my path. It’s not a path that I would have even imagined that I could have carved for myself. But you know, sometimes things just fall into place,” she said.
