Event
Crystal Coast Star Party 2026: NASA Speaker: Sarah Elizabeth McCandless, NASA JPL Navigation Engineer
Fee:
Free.Location: LAT/LONG: 34.685654, -76.526238
Event will take place inside the Harkers Island Visitors Center
Dates & Times
Date:
Time:
Duration:
Type of Event
Description
We’re excited to announce our speaker for the Crystal Coast Star Party 2026 – Sarah Elizabeth McCandless, NASA JPL Navigation Engineer – the interplanetary navigator for the Europa Clipper! The Europa Clipper, a mission to one of Jupiter’s moons, launched in October 2024 and is scheduled to arrive at Jupiter in 2030.
Sarah Elizabeth has flown eleven different missions exploring our solar system, including the Mars Perseverance rover, Artemis I, Psyche, and Near-Earth Object Surveyor (NEO Surveyor). Working as an “interplanetary Google maps”, she ensures NASA knows a spacecraft’s location and can precisely predict its trajectory to ensure successful orbit insertion about or landing on another planet or body. In 2024, she was selected for NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) Campaign 7 Mission 3 and served as an “analog astronaut”, simulating a mission to Mars for 45 days at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Outside of work, she enjoys running, camping, and piloting a Cessna 172S.
Reservation or Registration: Yes
Image Gallery
NPS Photo/Sabrina Godin