- Randy Owens
The Faith and Freedom Club of Medina hosted speakers Randy and Gini Owens at their April meeting. The Owens are the parents of Jessica Wittner, a new astronaut at NASA. A member of the Artemis project, Wittner could be the first woman to step foot on the moon.
The Owens family lives in Bandera after residing in California where they owned a horse rescue ranch.
Both Randy and Gini are children of veterans from the Army and Navy. Originally from Virginia, the couple are retired. They have two daughters, Jessica and Jana.
Avid motorcyclists, Randy and Gini were very engaged with the outdoors. Randy earned his pilot’s license in his late teens.
“We had a very big outdoor life, and our girls were born into that,” remarked Randy.
Jessica accompanied her father when he flew as a private pilot. They flew together frequently around California. By age 12 or 13, Jessica knew she wanted to be an astronaut.
“We knew not to discourage her when she said this, even though we knew that there was a 99.99 percent chance she would not make it,” said Randy.
Randy and Jessica took up rocketry when she was a preteen. Admittedly, Randy said they built and sent up a lot of rockets. They also built model rockets. Her bedroom in California was filled with rocket models.
After connecting with her high school best friend, who was a Sea Cadet, Jessica became a Sea Cadet.
“The Sea Cadet thing grew into an interest in the Navy,” remarked Randy.
Jessica was extremely successful in the Sea Cadets and earned the rank of Chief Petty Officer before she graduated high school.
She was able to get hands-on training on Navy planes, especially the F-18 through the Sea Cadets.
Jessica signed a contract to join the Navy at age 17.
The Owens received a letter when Jessica was in Boot Camp informing them that she had done extremely well and would lead her squadron in the graduation.
After graduating Boot Camp, Jessica went to Pensacola, Florida so she could be near fighter jets.
She went to Jet Engine School in Pensacola. The Owens learned that Jessica was one of 7 sailors and 1 Marine since 1948 that “aced” the jet engine course.
After being interviewed by NBC News about her accomplishments, she was accepted into an AC4 unit which provided combat support for helicopters in Sicily. She spent three years in Italy.
She gained attention from the captain at the base and was asked to go to Officer Candidate School. She met her husband in Newport, Rhode Island at the OCS where both were studying.
Jessica had accumulated only one year of college courses during her time in the Navy. In order to be an officer, she needed a four-year degree. She chose the University of Arizona where she pursued a degree in aerospace engineering. She completed the five-year aerospace degree program in three years with straight A’s.
Because she wanted to be a pilot, Jessica had to maintain her flight physicals throughout college even though she was not flying.
After she finished college, she went to flight school in Meriden, Mississippi. She finished flight school and as a final task she had to successfully land an F 18, 10 times during day and night conditions. She earned her gold wings.
Wittner joined the Blue Blasters squad in Oceania as the first female fighter pilot in that group. After her time in the Blue Blasters, Jessica went to test pilot school.
“It’s an honor to go to test pilot school, in all the branches of the military. She was in Class 150,” recollected Randy.
In test pilot school, she got to fly all varieties of planes. Most US astronauts go through test pilot school.
She and her husband, avid rock climbers, married in Yosemite National Park at that time.
Jessica applied to NASA and was accepted within 18 months. She is in Class 23. Out of twelve thousand applicants, she made the cut to 250 candidates. Then, she made the cut down to 25 candidates.
In the last cut to 12 candidates, she made it as one of the 10 Americans chosen, six males and four females, to join the Astronaut Training Program.
Two other spots went to candidates from the United Arab Emirates.
Wittner’s training as an astronaut took 3 years. She had to learn about the Space Station, the components of the Space Station, robotics, and the Russian language.
Once she began her training, she had to operate in the Space Station pool in a 250-pound custom made space suit.
The astronaut candidates were sent all over the world to learn about all areas of science and geology.
On March 5 of this year, Jessica’s astronaut class, dubbed “The Flies” by the previous astronaut class, graduated at Johnson Space Center. Since 1959, NASA has chosen only 360 Americans to join the astronaut program.
Now that Jessica has graduated in her class, she is available to get assignments in any American space program.
Randy and Gini Owens showed Jessica Wittner’s official astronaut picture. She is a member of the Artemis generation of astronauts. Artemis is the latest program where NASA gets the US back to the moon. Currently, Jessica is tasked with desk work while waiting to see if she is selected to go on a space mission.
