Hotty Toddy to the Moon and Again

McNutt, of Decatur, Alabama, has labored with Boeing as {an electrical} design and evaluation engineer since graduating from Ole Miss in 2018. She has spent the previous a number of years concerned in constructing and testing the spacecraft’s electronics system and serves as an avionics take a look at lead on NASA’s Space Launch System for the Artemis program.

She was on the Kennedy Space Center for Artemis II’s launch, which felt surreal, thrilling and nerve-wracking, however rewarding, she stated.

“I’ve spent my entire career thinking about this moment, preparing as a part of Artemis I – an uncrewed mission – as well, but the fact that we had humans on this rocket, it just elevated the stakes and made it more memorable because it’s the first time we’ve gone back to the moon in 53 years,” McNutt stated.

As a part of the crew that builds and checks the avionics system, she helps make launches attainable.

“This means I help coordinate and execute testing to ensure all the rocket’s electrical and communication systems are functioning properly before flight,” she stated.

McNutt was not solely concerned with this system earlier than the flight, but in addition throughout launch and the mission, when she monitored the rocket’s “brain.”

“For launch, I was on console monitoring the command and data handling system on the core stage, which is essentially the ‘brain’ on the rocket,” she stated. “That contains the flight computer systems and significant communication hyperlinks that enable the car to ship and obtain knowledge and instructions.

“My role was to watch the system health in real time, verify everything was operating as expected, and be ready to quickly identify and respond to any issues leading up to and during launch.”

But, earlier than serving to ship astronauts across the moon, McNutt needed to resolve the place to attend school. She grew up in a staunch University of Alabama household, and though she later earned an government MBA from UA, she selected Ole Miss to arrange her for her engineering profession.

“I literally became the ‘rebel’ of the family when I chose to go to Ole Miss,” the Rotary Club member stated.

She visited UM, Alabama and another smaller colleges to presumably play softball. She fell in love with Ole Miss.

“They wrote me a handwritten note after I went on my visit, and that felt really personal to me, and I was meant to be there,” McNutt stated. “I didn’t quite feel that with any other school that I visited, and so it felt like I was meant to be there.”

On a whim at orientation, the Pi Beta Phi sorority member modified her main to engineering.

“l always enjoyed math and science and I came from a family of engineers,” she stated. “I assumed it was one thing that will be attention-grabbing and open up an entire array of various alternatives.

“I don’t regret my decision at all. I think it was the best decision I could have possibly made.”

Becoming an engineer and dealing with NASA can be a familial full-circle second and a approach of honoring her late grandfather, Pryor Wilson Sandlin, who was affectionately referred to as “Fess” and labored at NASA earlier than it was even referred to as NASA

“He started in the late 1950s, working through the Apollo program, through Skylab program, until he retired in the ’80s,” she stated. “He had a ardour for house, was immensely devoted and happy with his work and dealing for NASA, and my mother talks about how proud he could be of me.

“One of the only two times in his life that he cried was when my grandmother passed away and when Challenger exploded. So, I felt like I honored him in a sense, working on the Artemis program and continuing the legacy of space exploration and just a love for space.”

McNutt’s involvement with the Artemis program is the most effective form of full-circle second for a professor to hope for, stated Tejas Pandya, educational affiliate professor of mechanical engineering.

“To know that a student I once had in class is now helping bring us back to the moon through Artemis is deeply moving,” he stated. “Their success is all their own hard work, but it reaffirms everything I love about engineering, being part of an amazing experience while contributing to solve a complex problem.”

McNutt’s profession with the house program started with a “Hotty Toddy” second.

“I was sitting in a NASA meeting, and I look over, and I see this man has an Ole Miss cup, so I said, ‘Hotty Toddy’ to him,” she stated. “He asked, ‘What do you know about Ole Miss?'”

The man with an Ole Miss cup was Markeeva Morgan, an Ole Miss engineering alumnus who has served on the School of Engineering advisory board and the UM Foundation board of administrators.

McNutt advised him she not too long ago graduated from Ole Miss and Morgan took her below his wing, turning into her mentor, taking her on recruiting journeys to Oxford and sharing along with her to not be afraid to place herself on the market and introduce herself to others – all due to a Hotty Toddy.

“Ole Miss played a huge role in getting me here,” she stated.

“It gave me the foundation, confidence and the community that set me up for opportunities like this. It’s been really special to see that journey come full circle, from being a student in Oxford to sitting on console for a mission headed to the moon.”

Top: Ole Miss mechanical engineer alumna Addison McNutt stands in entrance of the rocket she helped develop and take a look at as {an electrical} design and evaluation engineer with Boeing on the Vertical Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. She serves as an avionics take a look at lead on NASA’s Space Launch System for the Artemis program. Submitted photograph