Faces of SLS: Janica Cheney

This rocket scientist is the conductor of one big orchestra for testing the boosters that will help NASA’s Space Launch System hit the “high note” of deep space. Meet Janica Cheney, director of test and research operations at Orbital ATK.

I am the director of test and research operations at Orbital ATK in Promontory, Utah. I have the best job in the world. On the research operations side, I get to be on the forefront of all the new technology, processes and materials that we’re developing for the Space Launch System boosters. And then we get to test all of that technology. There’s nothing better than the smoke and fire — and data — that comes with a successful test. I’m very excited about our most recent test, QM-2, which will help qualify the boosters for the first flight of SLS.

This test has been months in the making, with progress going all the way back to the first booster segment being delivered to the test bay. An orchestra of people have been working on instrumentation, data acquisition, doing dry runs, clearing the area and planning for changes in the weather.    

I was born in Utah. My mother was the first female train engineer west of the Mississippi, and at times, the only female train engineer in the country. Her job took us to El Paso, Texas, and Tucumcari, New Mexico, before we moved back to Utah when I was a teenager.

I started college as a dance major, and then switched to a major in math and computer science at Weber State University. It required a year’s worth of calculus-based physics classes. After a week of lectures, I was hooked. I had never had a physics class, but I switched my major again after that first class. I’m so happy I did.

I started my career as a physicist, and have a doctorate in physics from the University of Utah. I was running my own labs at both the university and naval research labs, but then I got the unique opportunity to work at Orbital ATK. I really have loved it every day.

Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my 4-year-old son. We like to swim, hike, and run through the sprinkler. As a mother, and as a scientist, it is very important to me to motivate, shape, guide and inspire the next generation to be the explorers of the future. Nothing inspires like space.