Dr. Kavya K.Manyapu is a Space Scientist working in Flight Crew Operations and Testing building the next generation human rated spacecraft, the CST-100 Starliner, at the Boeing Company. She is the Starliner Spacesuit Lead and also serves as a Flight Test Director for Starliner’s Flight Tests. She served as a Mission Evaluation Room (MER) Duty Officer for the International Space Station (ISS) and currently participates in Boeing’s efforts on future Lunar missions. She is an Adjunct Professor at the University of North Dakota (UND) in the School of Aerospace Sciences.
Dr. Manyapu holds a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT, and a Ph.D in Aerospace Sciences from UND. Her research envelops novel, next generation spacesuit technologies for planetary missions with a focus on self-cleaning spacesuits and habitats for moon and mars missions and holds 6 patents on the research. Spacesuit samples based on her research work were recently launched to the International Space Station.
Prior to joining Boeing, Kavya worked on the Orion/Constellation program at Lockheed Martin and Mars Bio-satellite program at Georgia Tech and MIT. She served as a crewmember on NASA’s 15-day asteroid simulation mission at Johnson Space Center and two Analog Mars Missions in Utah, researching technologies for long-duration human spaceflight missions. She is a private pilot, SCUBA diver, aerobatic pilot, an avid hiker and a Indian classical dancer. Kavya enjoys educating and inspiring students to pursue careers in STEAM fields.
Kavya served as the Regional Coordinator for Space Generation Advisory Council from 2016-2019 for North and Central America, and Caribbean region. She currently serves as an Aerospace Officer and 2nd Lieutenant at the Civil Air Patrol. She is passionate about human space exploration with a belief in the applicability of space research for the betterment of our planet.
