Alicia (Aly) Mendoza-Hill

Alicia Mendoza-Hill is a program executive within the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Heliophysics Division. In her role, she manages the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and Joint EUV coronal Diagnostic Investigation (JEDI) missions. Additionally, Mendoza-Hill manages the Sounding Rockets Program and Wallops Flight Facility Range. She is also the Science Mission Directorate rideshare lead, serving as the central point of contact for all rideshare and access-to-space activities. She leads the coordination of rideshare launch opportunities for SMD missions within the agency and with external government and international partners.

Mendoza-Hill completed a detail with SMD at NASA Headquarters from April 2019 through April 2020, assisting the development the SMD-level rideshare implementation processes, policy, and plans. During this assignment she co-led the implementation of rideshare on the IMAP mission.

Prior to joining SMD, Mendoza-Hill was a mission manager in the Flight Projects Office of the Launch Services Program at NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida (KSC). As the mission manager, she was the primary spacecraft customer interface and was responsible for the management of the launch services, integration, and launch vehicle engineering aspects for the OCO-2, CYGNSS, InSight, DART, and GeoCarb missions. She also led the Mission Integration Team (MIT) which ensures that the mission will be launched successfully into its required orbit, on time and within budget.

Prior to transferring to LSP in 2011, Mendoza-Hill was the NASA vehicle manager for the external tank (ET) and solid rocket boosters (SRB) within the Operations Integration Branch of the Launch Vehicle Processing Directorate for the Space Shuttle Program. She was responsible for managing all NASA activities associated with the processing of the ET, SRBs, and Mobile Launch Platform at Kennedy for every space shuttle mission. This included coordination of prelaunch operations, launch and recovery activities with the KSC management, Marshall Space Flight Center shuttle program elements, and NASA contractors. She was also responsible for evaluating, planning and integrating all element deliveries, operational requirements and resource availability for all ET and SRB operations for both near-term and long-range manifest schedules.

From 2003 to 2007, she served as a NASA vehicle processing engineer for the ET and SRBs, as well as for the orbiters Discovery and Endeavour.

Mendoza-Hill joined NASA in 2000 as an industrial engineer (IE) in space shuttle processing. She was the study manager for the Space Shuttle Program Industrial Engineering for Safety Program and the IE representative for the OV-103 Orbiter Major Modification Team. She also managed contractor IE and human factors engineering projects.

Throughout her career at NASA, Mendoza-Hill has received numerous group achievement and performance awards, as well as multiple Space Flight Awareness Team Awards, a Kennedy Launch Vehicle Processing Superior Achievement Award, Kennedy Certificate of Commendation, Outstanding Leadership Medal, Kennedy and Headquarters Exceptional Achievement Medals, and a Space Flight Awareness Silver Snoopy.

Mendoza-Hill earned a Bachelor of Science in industrial and systems engineering from Florida International University, followed by a Master of Science in space systems from the Florida Institute of Technology.