Meet Alan Stern, Southwest Research Institute’s first official space traveler

Alan Stern can't remember a time when he didn't love learning about outer space.

Born in New Orleans in 1957 and raised in Dallas, Stern recalls the great Space Race of the '60s and '70s. He remembers being amazed by the Apollo space missions and watching humans step on the moon for the first time.

Now, as an associate vice president of the Southwest Research Institute’s Space Science Division and an independent science consultant, Stern has made significant contributions to the field that inspired him. He has helped build the San Antonio-based institute’s space science and engineering division, expand our knowledge of icy objects deep in our solar system, and advance commercial space travel. After working on numerous space missions throughout his career, Stern achieved a lifelong dream earlier this month: visiting space himself. On Nov. 2, he flew aboard the Virgin Galactic commercial spaceship VSS Unity on a suborbital space mission to train for a future NASA-funded flight where he will conduct experiments in space. Stern described the adventure as “an incredible human experience” and said he is proud to be part of “a new era of space research.” The mission marks SwRI’s first time funding and sending one of its own on a space flight.

During the hour-long flight, he experienced weightlessness for three minutes.

“It was almost indescribable,” he said. “I like to tell people it’s the best day ever at work.”

Roots in Texas

Stern jokes that he was “quite a nerd” growing up. While he played the usual sports for a kid in the South—football and baseball—he was happiest in the library, reading books about space and engineering.

The oldest of three children, Stern spent the first 12 years of his life in New Orleans before his family moved to Dallas, where he graduated from the prestigious St. Mark’s School of Texas. After high school, Stern went to Austin to attend the University of Texas.

“When I first went to university, I wasn't sure if I wanted to be a scientist or an engineer,” he said. “I was like many kids, unsure about my major, but I finally chose physics because I thought it was the most challenging.” Stern graduated from UT with degrees in physics and astronomy, then earned graduate degrees in aerospace engineering and atmospheric science.

Stern spent the next seven years as an aerospace systems engineer, helping design spacecraft for NASA, Martin Marietta Aerospace, and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado.

During this time, he met his former wife Carole, and they had their first of three children, which made Stern eager to settle in Boulder, Colorado. Stern completed his doctorate in astrophysics and planetary science in 1989 at the University of Colorado.