Mr. Rodney Rocha, whose NASA career spanned half a century, will share his knowledge and insights into the processes involved with ensuring the readiness of a spacecraft for launch, through the lense of structural loads and dynamics. He will use the Space Shuttle as an example of the processes involved.
Mr. Rocha was hired by NASA JSC in July 1974. Over the course of his career, he served as manager of the Structures & Dynamics Laboratory. He was Technical Chair of the Space Shuttle Loads & Dynamics Panel, and subsequently served as Space Shuttle-Orbiter chief engineer within the NASA JSC Structural Engineering Division. Mr. Rocha supported the ground test planning for, and test-validation of, the mathematical models of modal vibration for the combined Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion Multiple Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), which are components of the Artemis Lunar Exploration Program. He served as principal investigator for human-subject lab vibration testing to establish astronaut-induced loads onto structure. He retired from NASA in early 2025.
Rodney graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BS in aerospace engineering. He obtained his master’s degree in Space Science at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. Mr. Rocha served as a lecturer in the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering at Rice University, teaching engineering courses in statics, dynamics, and mechanics of solids. He has also given numerous presentations to a broad range of audiences on topics based on his experiences and lessons learned from the STS-107 Space Shuttle Columbia accident, including accident case studies, effective communication of technical issues and alternate technical opinions, safety, and ethics in engineering.
When he is not sharing his knowledge with audiences, he enjoys traveling the world, reading, and learning new things.
