John D. Olivas

He has won these awards: Six U.S. Patents; Four NASA Class One Tech Brief Awards; Five JPL-California Institute of Technology Novel Technology Recognitions; The University of Texas-El Paso Distinguished Alumnus, HENAAC Most Promising Engineer, McDonald’s Hispanos Triunfadores Life Time Achievement Award, NASA ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Award, Dow Life Saving Award.John Daniel "Danny" Olivas is a former NASA astronaut. He was born on May 25, 1966 in North Hollywood, but was raised in El Paso, Texas. As a kid, Danny was very mechanically inclined, due to his father's high skill of mechanical engineering. He says he remembers watching his father take apart machines and put them back together. Danny first really got into space when his family visited the Johnson Space Center in Houston. His father was showing him a rocket engine mockup and started to explain the parts that he built. When he realized that his own dad had a part in all the parts that he had been looking at in that museum, he started thinking about all the people the contributed to the space program. He also used to take a telescope up on the roof of his house with his father and they would look at the moon and stars. Olivas says he thought it was just amazing how much space there is above us. Danny attended Burges High School and graduated in 1989. As a junior, Danny already had the confidence and skills to rebuild the six-cylinder motor in his 1969 Ford ranger. After he graduated from high school, he studied mechanical engineering at UTEP and received his Bachelor of Science degree. He and his girlfriend got married and moved to Houston to work in that area. Danny worked at the Dow Chemical Company. He was trying to get into NASA at that time, but NASA was in a hiring freeze. He then received a Masters of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Houston. After that, he received a Doctorate in mechanical engineering and materials science from Rice University. After he graduated, he and his wife moved to Los Angeles and had two kids. He started working for a Jet Propulsion Laboratory, In 1998, after about ten years of applying to the astronaut program at NASA, his application was reviewed,, he was brought in for an interview, and he got the job. Olivas moved back to Houston and had three more kids. He worked for NASA for thirteen years and retired on May 25, 2010.