Laura Seward Forczyk, MSc

Laura Seward Forczyk, MSc is NASA Subject Matter Expert for planetary science missions at Astralytical and the Founder and Executive Director of Georgia Space Alliance. She is author of Becoming Off-Worldly: Learning from Astronauts to Prepare for Your Spaceflight Journey and desires to dance on the Moon and explore the stars.

Laura is a scientist, entrepreneurial, a frequent source for newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, and podcasts. She is also a public speaker.

Laura’s company, Astralytical, is a research, consulting, and publishing firm founded in 2016 and located outside of Atlanta. They specialize in space-related scientific research, industry and policy analysis, career coaching, and communications.

Her volunteer nonprofit organization, the Georgia Space Alliance, has a goal to bring together professionals and interested parties to form a unified community to support space activities and development within Georgia.

Previously, Laura was the Manager at Florida Operations for Swiss Space Systems (S3), where she managed all preparations for parabolic flight and suborbital spaceflight activity in Florida, including coordinating with NASA KSC and Space Florida, partnering with tourism and marketing entities, communicating with scientific payload providers, and working with regulatory agencies such as the FAA and DOT.

Laura started her working experience in 2003 as Astrophysicist at Villanova University, where she analyzed ultraviolet observations of cataclysmic variables binary star systems and analyzed a catalog of nearly 100 stars that closely resemble the Sun. In June 2005, she became Assistant Operations Manager for NASA Academy atMSFC (Marshall Space Flight Center) where she analyzed x-ray and gamma-ray observations of gamma-ray bursts observed by NASA’s Swift telescope. There, she also won the Von Braun Leadership Award.

While Laura was at NASA, she also joined NSS’s Huntsville Alabama L5 society (HAL5) as a secretary and later became a president of Florida Space Development Council for National Space Society (NSS).

Laura was a NASA Graduate Student Research Program Fellow Astrophysicist, an X-ray Optics Manufacturing Engineer, and finally was a volunteer NASA Student Ambassador.

After NASA Academy at MSFC, she became an Experimental Planetary Scientist at University of Central Florida in Orlando. She designed and executed experiments of low-velocity impacts into regolith granular material. She has gotten experience with microgravity conditions, vacuum systems, and image analysis, managed a team of undergraduate students under Dr. Joshua Colwell, and flew 65 parabolas with microgravity experiments on 2 microgravity parabolic flight campaigns.

In July 2010, Laura took the role of Planetary Protection / Education & Public Outreach Lead where she designed, wrote, and presented a mission study to Jupiter’s moon with JPL Team X mentors.

She was also Field Planetary Scientist for NASA Lunar Science Institute Meteor Crater Field Camp in Arizona, where they researched non-public areas of Meteor Crater during an 8-day field camp and analyzed geological features in situ and documented geology research techniques.

In the Summer of 2012, Laura worked as Experimental Planetary Scientist at NASA Kennedy Space Center where she conducted experiments blasting high-powered jets of gas into granular materials. She also worked on the “Physics of Rocket Exhaust Shock Impingement for Martian Landing Technologies” project.

For a year, she took the Lead as Space Industry Analyst at NewSpace Global, where she researched, analyzed, and ranked private companies in the “newspace” commercial space sector, focusing in particular on company management, market, capitalization, and technology.

Before she joined S3 (Swiss Space Systems), Laura was a Scientific Research Analyst at the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space in Melbourne, Florida, where she assisted over 50 microgravity research experiments to fly to space.

Laura earned her Master’s Degree of Science in Physics and Astrophysics from the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 2008. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the Florida Institute of Technology in 2006. In 2014, she finished (without the dissertation) her doctoral lab work and coursework at the University of Central Florida.

She also holds her Zero Gravity Certification from Zero-G Corporation and did her Suborbital Scientist Astronaut Training at NASTAR Center. Read the story from the Washington Post featuring Laura. Read Laura’s summary of a potential human mission Mars mission.

Laura was mentioned in the Mashable story Kids and the Earth are the real losers in Trump’s NASA budget and in the GeekWire story Commercial space ventures hail NASA opportunities in orbit and on the moon. Watch the interview with Laura at Florida Space Day. Read the full list of her articles and interviews!

Laura is the author of Rise of the Space Age Millennials: The Space Aspirations of a Rising Generation. Visit her LinkedIn profile. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter. Visit and read her homepageAstralytical and her blog Laura’s Space on Space.