Scarlin Hernandez

Scarlin Hernandez is a Dominican-American astronautical engineer. She is a spacecraft engineer for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD.

Early life and education
Hernandez was born in the Dominican Republican and moved to Brooklyn, New York, at the age of four. She grew up in Baltimore, MD, and attended high school at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute.

In 2013, she earned a degree in computer engineering from Capitol Technology University in Laurel, Maryland, support by a full scholarship from the National Science Foundation. There, she also began to pursue astronautical engineering in her studies. She started a chapter of the Society of Women Engineers while at Capitol and served as secretary and later president.

While in college, she also completed an internship at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where she was part of the ground control system team for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite, which operated from 1997-2015.

Career
Following college, Hernandez worked in various roles for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, including as mission planning lead, and systems engineer, propulsion engineer, and power engineer. From there, she moved to focus on deep space, joining the James Webb Space Telescope mission at the Space Telescope Science Institute. There, she works on the flight operations team on the deployment control subsystem.

She supported the Webb telescope during its during its December 25, 2021 launch, and worked on cits onsole throughout its commissioning. She also worked on its Optical Telescope Element.

While at the Space Telescope Science Institute, she has also participated in internal projects such as the Women Empowering Women program, the first institute-wide diversity, equity, and inclusion program, as well as recruitment campaigns with the Society of Women Engineers and Capitol Technology University.

In 2022, Hernandez was the National Award of the Youth in the Dominican Republic, and the same year she was also included in Forbes Dominican Republic Las 50 Mujeres Poderosas República Dominicana.

She has also been featured in the documentary Orgullo de Quisqueya and the Netflix documentary Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine.