Janice E. Voss was born on October 8, 1956, in South Bend, Indiana. Her parents, James R. and Louise, were both graduates of Purdue University. Her mother may have been more of a traditional wife and mother, but she held a bachelor’s degree in home economics, while Voss’s father had a master’s and a doctorate, though I could not confirm in what fields. Voss and her three sisters grew up exposed to the arts and sciences and were raised to have a wide range of interests.
The family moved to Rockford, Illinois, which Voss considered her hometown. Her abilities impressed her teachers so much that she skipped from kindergarten to third grade. At some point the family then moved to Massachusetts, and Voss continued to excel in what we now call STEM studies while also participating in theater and band. Voss took advantage of a National Science Foundation course at the University of Illinois during the summer when she was 14. The faculty working with that program encouraged her to immediately enroll in college, but instead Voss returned to Massachusetts and graduated from Minnechaug Regional High School just before turning 16.
Voss returned to Indiana to go to her parents’ alma mater, Purdue University, for their engineering program in 1972. Less than one percent of the students in the program were women. What was normally a five-year bachelor engineering program took Voss only three years, and she earned her degree in 1975. As part of her studies, Voss joined a cooperative learning program between Purdue University and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in 1973 at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Next she returned to Massachusetts, where she earned her master’s degree in electrical engineering from M.I.T. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in 1977.
Her master’s thesis about Kalman filtering techniques was so useful that it became a workbook for astronauts. Voss went back to NASA and worked for a year as a crew trainer. While at NASA and during her bachelor’s and master’s work, Voss realized that candidates required not just specialized skills but a wide range of skills if they were to be picked and succeed in the program.
Getting her doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics became a more circuitous path. She studied at Rice University from 1977 to 1978, focusing on space physics, the study of natural phenomena in our solar system. Voss returned to M.I.T. and earned her doctorate in 1987 with a focus on the guidance and control needs of large space structures.
After over a decade of academic work, Voss became a manager at Orbital Sciences Corporation before it became part of Northrop Grumman, one of the most important companies that works with NASA. Orbital created small space and rocket systems. But Voss’s goal was to become an astronaut, so she applied for NASA’s program. By 1990, she was training to go into space. Eventually she would travel aboard three different space shuttles: in 1993 (on Endeavor), 1995 (on Discovery), 1997 (twice on Columbia), and 2000 (on Endeavor). Voss made a total of five trips into space, tying with six other astronauts for the most space flights by a woman.
At NASA, Voss helped with several important projects that still impress today. She worked on combustion science and with animal and plant experiments on SpaceHab, a commercial laboratory in space. She helped create a high-resolution elevation map of 80% of the Earth. She was the operator for the Shuttle’s robotic arm in 1995 and was payload commander on the first of her two missions in 1997.
Voss developed a love for science fiction from an early age. Books had always been part of her family’s life, and she had discovered the genre by the age of nine. Voss took a copy of A Wrinkle in Time with her during one mission so that she could then present it to its author, Madeleine L'Engle, in thanks for inspiring Voss’s goal to become an astronaut. She was known to include a science fiction book with her personal items on her missions into space.
Voss wasn’t just a scientist and astronaut who loved science fiction. She also loved dance and joined dance clubs while in school. In 2000, during her last mission into space, she and fellow astronaut Gerhard Thiele from Germany danced the Swing, which allowed Thiele to be anchored in place.
After her five missions into space, Voss continued to work at NASA while fighting a personal battle. In 2002, at the age of 45, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She made a difficult choice to be aggressive and underwent a lumpectomy to remove the diseased tissue. After what seemed to be a successful surgery and remission, she joined the Ames Research Center in 2004. While there, she was the science director for the Kepler Mission, which later launched a telescope into orbit in 2009. Voss and her team helped find numerous planets outside our solar system using the device. Voss also returned to M.I.T. and other places to give lectures and to meet with women pursuing engineering there.
While Voss’s dreams to become an engineer and an astronaut were realized, she couldn’t win every fight. On February 6, 2012, she passed away from complications due to breast cancer. Her family and Purdue University established the Janice E. Voss Scholarship for Women in Engineering to help other women achieve their STEM goals. While it cannot be certain that Voss’s career influenced women to enroll, the numbers are suggestive. By 2012, 20% of the engineering class were women, and that has more than doubled to 46% in 2020! Maybe one day, more women will dance in space thanks to the work of Janice E. Voss.