Anita Gale Biography

Anita Gale worked as a Senior Project Engineer in Space Shuttle Payload & Cargo Integration for The Boeing Company in Houston. Her professional career started on the Space Shuttle program in 1974 for Rockwell International in Downey, California. She provided conceptual designs for cargo integration on future launch vehicles, contributed to R&D for Shuttle upgrades and future missions of both reusable and expendable launch vehicles, and developed and fostered process improvements. She holds three US patents on launch vehicle payload interface standardization and containerization, which are essential technologies for reducing future vehicle processing costs and schedules.

In 1984, Anita co-founded Space Settlement Design Competitions, industry simulation games that engage high school students in designing future space settlements. These events are complementary to the NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest co-sponsored by NSS. The Competitions have evolved into an International activity involving over 1000 students each year on six continents. Anita’s work with Space Settlement Design Competitions was recognized by NSS in 2008 with presentation of a Space Pioneer Award, in the Category of Educator.

Anita has been a member of NSS and both precursor organizations, since the L5 Los Angeles Chapter (OASIS) was founded in the late 1970s. She also served as a member of the NSS Space Settlement Advocacy Committee, and chaired Space Settlement Sessions for ISDC in 2007 and 2008.

Anita has been an active member of two professional engineering organizations, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and Society of Women Engineers (SWE). She served as a member of the AIAA Space Colonization Technical Committee, regularly chaired technical conference sessions on space settlements, and has written technical papers about space settlement requirements, designs, and the triggering events that will cause space settlements to be built.

Anita earned both a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Washington, and a Certificate in Systems Engineering from Cal Poly Pomona.

Before his untimely death in 2009, Anita and her spouse Dick Edwards raced a J24 sailboat on the Texas Circuit, and Summer Wednesday evenings on Clear Lake near NASA Johnson Space Center. Her favorite vacation has been a two-week Grand Canyon raft trip she arranges every three years, with friends, colleagues, and geology professors from the University of Washington.