Rodney Rocha
Aerospace Engineer
NASA
Experience-based recommendations on communicating grave safety issues to a hostile management
Abstract details coming soon.
Mr. Rocha was born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering. He obtained his master’s degree in Space Science at the University of Houston-Clear Lake.
He was hired by NASA Johnson Space Center in July 1974 as an engineering intern in the Structural Engineering Division, where he has been ever since. From 2014 to 2015 Mr. Rocha was a part-time lecturer at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rice University. Mr. Rocha’s spouse is Robyn Morgan.
Mr. Rocha’s engineering expertise is in the area of Newtonian dynamics, structural dynamics, and structural vibrations. He has served in diverse positions in his long NASA career, including Space Shuttle Chief Engineer within the JSC Structural Engineering Division. Mr. Rocha supported the ground test planning and pre-flight analyses of the Artemis-1 and -2 flight vehicle.
He supports defining astronaut-induced loads onto the Human Landing System and impact dynamics requirements and testing for the new lunar exploration space suits. These are NASA’s projects enabling NASA’s return of the US human exploration of the Moon.
For decades Mr. Rocha has volunteered to serving NASA’s education outreach programs. He has spoken many times to the public, school and university students, early-career NASA engineering and contractor interns, NASA project management training classes, other US government agencies. He makes flight safety recommendations relevant to NASA’s current needs for maintaining technical vigilance, and open communication of engineering issues and concerns to NASA management in order to assure flight safety.