American History, Unfiltered: Aaron Yazzie

American History, Unfiltered: A post series highlighting people from traditionally marginalized groups who accomplished great things for America.

Happy Engineers’ Week! Today we explore the life of one very special engineer. His name is Aaron Yazzie and he is a mechanical engineer for NASA. 

His work at NASA involves designing the mechanical systems for NASA's robotic space research missions for gathering and handling of planetary samples. He has worked on the Mars Science Laboratory, InSight, and Mars 2020 missions

Aaron is from the Diné (Navajo) tribe, born in Tuba City, Arizona on the Navajo reservation. He has said the surface of Mars reminds him of where he grew up, playing on the deserts of the Navajo Nation.

People like Aaron Yazzie help us further our knowledge of what’s out there. Since the beginning of his career at NASA he has also been working hard to recruit more Indigenous people to come work for them. It is important to highlight the gifts Indigenous people have to offer in land and space.