We’re proud to highlight the remarkable journey of Denisse Aranda (’10), an alumna of Florida International University (FIU) who has reached a major milestone in her career as a principal space-systems contamination control engineer at Blue Origin. She played a key role in the launch of the 320-plus-foot heavy-lift rocket New Glenn, which successfully lifted off carrying twin probes for NASA’s ESCAPADE mission.
Denisse V. Aranda (Mechanical and Materials Engineering)
While at FIU, Denisse was part of the university’s inaugural cohort of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Fellows Program in 2007, housed in the university’s Applied Research Center (ARC) under the leadership of Dr. Leonel “Leo” Lagos. Through this program, she contributed to environmental-cleanup research focused on DOE’s sites across the country.
Denisse credits her time at ARC and her mentoring relationship with Dr. Leonel Lagos as foundational to her success. “Because of the research I did at FIU’s Applied Research Center, I was able to get my first internship at NASA and co-author a scientific article as a sophomore,” she says.
At Blue Origin, her role involves ensuring that the New Glenn rocket and its payload hardware meet the strictest cleanliness standards. As level 5 engineer and subject-matter expert, she leads contamination control for the rocket’s architecture and flight hardware. Even the microscopic particles she helps guard against can affect mission success—at the extreme conditions of spaceflight, the smallest speck can be catastrophic.
She also oversees “planetary protection” measures to prevent biological cross-contamination between Earth and other celestial bodies—an increasingly critical task as space exploration advances.
Beyond her technical contributions, Denisse remains deeply committed to mentoring future STEM professionals. She has volunteered for years with program director duties at the nonprofit Science Camps of America, inspiring students from around the world through hands-on science education and engineering projects.