Armstrong Flight Research Center Engineer Johanna Lucht is the first deaf engineer at NASA to carry out an active role in a NASA control center during a crew flight test.

Johanna Lucht was born in Germany where her father worked for the U.S. Defense Department. There were no language skills programs for the deaf available in her German town, although she intuitively understood mathematics. When she was 9, the interpreter assigned to Lucht was astonished to find that she had no language. The interpreter taught Lucht American Sign Language, and Lucht’s education took off like one of the jet planes for which she would ultimately analyze data at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center. As a sophomore in high school, she was accepted to the University of Washington’s summer computer science program. Not surprisingly, computer coding was a new language that fascinated her. As a junior in computer science and engineering at the University of Minnesota, Lucht applied for and was accepted to an internship at NASA, and she was hired in a full-time position after graduation in 2014.

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NASA has shared a picture of their first deaf engineer Johanna Lucht via its Women@NASA Twitter handle saying, “In 2017, Johanna Lucht became the first deaf engineer to hold an active role in a NASA control center during a crewed mission.”

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