Alice Bowman

Alice Bowman (born 1960) is the Mission Operations Manager for the New Horizons mission to Pluto. She is the first woman to fill that role at the Applied Physics Laboratory, taking on the position in 2002 specifically for the duration of the three billion-mile space journey.

Career

She first worked in the defense industry analyzing infrared detectors and developing anti-cancer drugs. Bowman leads a team of approximately 40 people, Ten days before the eventual Pluto-encounter day, that entailed over 20,000 commands. She has compared the levels of accuracy required to achieving a hole in one in golf.

Awards and honors

Asteroid 146040 Alicebowman, discovered by Marc Buie at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in 2000, was named after her.