Apollo 11 lifted her eyes to the skies. Now this Montana woman is helping chart a course for NASA's return to the moon

In her family's den on Helena's Stuart Street, Dava Newman watched through the static of the broadcast as people landed on the moon 50 years ago.

Newman was 5 years old that afternoon of July 20, 1969.

"It was hugely inspirational," she said. "The most important lesson it taught me was to dream."

The mission to the moon was all about striving for the impossible, and that was a great lesson to learn. And it helped to have "great skies" in Montana to draw her eyes to the heavens.

"I watched as we became truly interplanetary. It was huge and had more of an impact than I ever imagined it would," she said.

More:NASA's Apollo 11 moon landing is Montana's story, too

Newman didn't know it then, but her career would help chart a course back to the moon.

Newman was NASA's No. 2 from 2015 to 2017, when she returned to the  Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with the end of the Obama Administration. She is the MIT Apollo Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and best known for her work on a next-generation spacesuit, though she's also researched astronaut motion, mission analysis and engineering systems design and policy analysis.

Newman developed plans for the human to Mars mission. 

"It's really hard and far away. We put the 2030s for Mars, but the 2020s is absolutely the decade to go to the moon," she said. "It's necessary to get to the moon and to keep investing in the technology as a stepping stone that will help us get to Mars."

Newman is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing with interviews and perhaps popping some champagne. She's been nerding out with the website apolloinrealtime.org/11/, which follows the Apollo 11 mission as it unfolded.

"That's how I celebrate. I'm a technical person," she said.

"It's ancient history for people who didn't live through it," she said, but NASA's future depends on the nation's commitment to the space program. She hopes to spark interest in NASA among those who didn't live through the heady days of the space race.

"We want the next generation to be just as excited about going back to the moon," she said.

More:NASA's Apollo 11 moon landing is Montana's story, too

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