Judith Neuffer

Judith Neuffer was born on June 13, 1948, in Wooster, Ohio.[3] Influenced in part by her father, a WWII P-38 pilot and post-war airport manager, she began accompanying her father to work during the summer at age 11. She began flight lessons at the age of 15 in a Piper Cub airplane and successfully completed a solo flight in it at age 16. In 1966, Bruner enrolled at Ohio State University, where she obtained a bachelor's degree in computer science. She enlisted at the end of her junior year and was commissioned following her graduation in 1970.

The United States Navy first offered official flight training to women in 1973. Orders were cut for eight female pilots; six went on to earn their wings, Bruner included. Lieutenant William Andrew Owens was her primary flight instructor. She became the first woman to solo fly a US Navy aircraft, a T-34B Mentor, on May 10, 1973.[4] Though female flight training was at the time limited to the use of non-combat aircraft, Bruner was assigned to the P-3 aircraft — commonly used for submarine patrol and weather surveillance — at her request. During her Navy flying career, Bruner logged several thousands of hours piloting the P-3, becoming the first female P-3 Aircraft Commander and the first woman to pilot an aircraft through the eye of a hurricane.[3]

Bruner served a total of 28 years in the United States Navy. During her 10 years on active duty, she conducted flying assignments and a tour at The US Pentagon. She then transferred to the Naval Reserve. For the remainder of her career, she held three Commanding Officer positions and also served as the Director of the Navy's Science and Technology Reserve Program. She received numerous Navy awards including four Meritorious Service Medals and the Navy Commendation Medal. Bruner retired from the United States Navy in 1998 having attained the rank of captain.[3]

Bruner began her career with NASA in 1981, working first as a contractor for UNISYS Corporation as a Senior Systems Analyst on the Hubble Space Telescope mission. Bruner formally joined NASA in 1989, working for two years as the ground system Implementation Manager on the Earth Observing System satellite missions. Bruner was then selected to head the Spacecraft Control Center Branch. In this capacity, Bruner was assigned the responsibility for the development and implementation of all satellite control centers for missions at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland. Concurrently, Bruner also earned her M.S. Degree from the George Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in 1995.

In 1997, Bruner was assigned to Goddard Space Flight Center's Directors Staff, serving in various capacities, including Acting Director of NASA's IV&V facility in West Virginia, and Program Manager for the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) mission. When the Space Shuttle Columbia accident occurred in February 2003, Bruner served as the GSFC point of contact for the investigation and the focal point of GSFC's support of NASA's subsequent Return to Flight. Bruner was the Director of the Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate at Goddard Space Flight Center. During her tenure at NASA, she received the Exceptional Service Medal, the Exceptional Achievement Medal, the Outstanding Leadership Medal, and the Outstanding Management Award.

Bruner died on December 13, 2022 in Annapolis, Maryland.[3]

• United States Navy
• Naval Aviation
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration

• Pexton, Patrick. New Captains Have Flown Against Tradition. Navy Times 42:4 Apr 5 '93.
• Helen F. Collins (July 1977). "Women in Naval Aviation: From Plane Captains to Pilots" (PDF). Naval Aviation News. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-02-21.
• Sandy Russell (February 1981). "High Flying Ladies" (PDF). Naval Aviation News. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2004-11-04.
• Grossnick, Roy A. (1997). United States Naval Aviation 1910–1995. Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center. ISBN 0-945274-34-3.
• Holden, Henry M. with Captain Lori Griffith (1991). Ladybirds — The Untold Story of Women Pilots in America. Mt. Freedom, NJ: Black Hawk Publishing Co. ISBN 978-1-879630-11-6.

• "The Ninety-Nines from 1929 to 1989". The Ninety-Nines. Retrieved March 7, 2016.
• "SAMPLE Weekly Ocean News WEEK ONE: 1–5 September 2014". AMS (American Meteorological Society). Retrieved March 7, 2016.
• Women in the US Navy: "Ladies Wear The Blue" 1974 US Navy ("...first woman admitted to the Naval Flight Training Program.")
• Judith Bruner Women@NASA 2014 (interview, published to YouTube on Dec 2, 2014)