Boilermaker alum to achieve lifelong space dream aboard Purdue 1
Jason Williamson will become the first Purdue civil engineer to travel to space during the Purdue 1 suborbital flight in 2027. (Purdue University photo/John Underwood)
The all-Purdue suborbital spaceflight will make Jason Williamson the first Boilermaker civil engineer to travel to space
Early on in their dating life — in that tricky stage where potential partners share their goals and ambitions — Jason Williamson told his future wife, Edna, about a dream that has driven him since childhood.
“I said, ‘Hey, by the way, I’m going to space. I don’t know how or when or who or what, but I’m earmarking this dream, and it’s going to happen,’” says Williamson (BS civil engineering ’97), a senior vice president at Dunaway, a Texas-based engineering services firm.
Her first thought: Sure, why not?
“We were talking about what we’d always wanted to do, and that is one of the first things that he told me,” she recalls. “He said, ‘I’ve always had this dream of going to space.’ And my response, not really knowing a lot about what that looked like, was, ‘Why don’t you? Why haven’t you gone to space yet?’”
If only it were that easy. At that point, Edna was not yet the space enthusiast she has become over the course of their relationship. She did not know that a physical limitation — Jason is colorblind — could prevent someone like him from even being considered as a NASA astronaut candidate or that joining a commercial suborbital program is often an expensive and arduous process.
But it quickly became clear that this was no fleeting interest. It was a true passion that would drive Jason to do whatever it took to fulfill.
It was apparent when he showed off his prized copy of the 1993 story that his hometown newspaper, the Anderson (Indiana) Herald Bulletin, published about his trip to Space Camp at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
It was evident when he signed up for Virgin Galactic’s Future Astronaut community and excitedly took advantage of every opportunity to participate in the commercial suborbital spaceflight provider’s activities.
And it was perhaps most obvious in the way his face lit up when he and Edna attended two Virgin Galactic launches at Spaceport America and watched the VSS Unity spacecraft begin its voyage beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
“It was beautiful,” she says. “It just brings you to tears watching somebody fulfill their dreams.”
Little did the Williamsons know while watching the Galactic 06 and 07 crews that they were also seeing their future.
Launching Purdue 1
Behind the scenes, Virgin Galactic was working with Jason’s alma mater, Purdue — an institution he has supported as an ambassador for two-plus decades — to initiate Purdue 1, a first-of-its-kind commercial suborbital mission where all five crew members would be Boilermakers. Because of his loyalty to both Virgin Galactic and Purdue and excitement over all things space-related, Williamson was an obvious choice when the parties evaluated which alumni they would invite to join the mission.
“That means a great deal to me,” Williamson says. “I want to make sure that I’m giving my best for Purdue, I’m giving my best for Virgin Galactic, and I’m giving my best for myself, my company and my family. I want to do right by everybody because it is such an incredible privilege to get to do this.”
When Virgin Galactic’s new Delta Class spacecraft lifts off in 2027 carrying the all-Purdue crew, Jason will not only accomplish the space dream that he first described to Edna, but he will also become the first Boilermaker civil engineer to join the university’s iconic Cradle of Astronauts.
“It’s really mind-blowing for a mere mortal like myself to have this opportunity to go to space,” he says. “Purdue and Virgin Galactic and space — it’s like they just squished it all together and said, ‘Here are your dreams, young man.’ It’s unbelievable to me that all of this is coming together. Talk about a full-circle moment.”
A covert meeting in plain sight
When Williamson visited the Purdue campus in August 2025, the primary purpose was to speak with Boilermaker civil engineering students. As a longtime Dunaway executive who specializes in healthcare and commercial developments, he has a wealth of engineering experience from which to draw during these frequent sessions where he discusses working in his industry.
But Williamson also had a secondary motive during this particular visit to West Lafayette. He hoped to meet with a pair of Boilermakers who would soon become two of the most important people in his life.
Williamson already knew the identities of these two fellow Purdue 1 crew members — Steven Collicott, a professor in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and graduate student Abigail Mizzi (BS aeronautical and astronautical engineering ’25) — but the trio had each signed nondisclosure agreements stating they would not publicly reveal that the mission was in the works. Nonetheless, they requested clearance from Virgin Galactic to meet in person, and the company signed off on their plan to meet somewhat indiscreetly that day in August.
As Collicott, Mizzi and Williamson walked through the Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering, chatting and checking out displays spotlighting Purdue’s space history, Williamson stopped a student in the hallway. Then he handed him his cellphone and asked him to take a picture of their group standing in front of an exhibit spotlighting Purdue students who have experienced weightlessness in flight — just like the Purdue 1 crew will experience for several minutes during their upcoming mission.
Perhaps the Boilermaker student who took the photo will see it here and recognize his unique place in Purdue’s space history: This random passerby took the first photo of the Purdue 1 crew (or at least three-fifths of the group) a month before Purdue and Virgin Galactic officially announced the mission in September 2025.
“Nobody knew who these three people were,” Williamson recalls with a laugh. “That was kind of our little secret way of getting to meet each other.”
But it was actually not the first time that Williamson and Collicott had crossed paths. There was a Virgin Galactic connection on that special occasion, as well.
When the Williamsons attended the Galactic 07 festivities in 2024, they were surprised to see several young people buzzing about wearing Purdue gear. They soon discovered these young people were Boilermaker students assisting Collicott, whose autonomous experiment to study propellant slosh would fly aboard the spacecraft that day.
“I’m fanboying these college kids that are flying their autonomous payload onboard this spaceship that I get to go watch, and I remember being out on the tarmac and saying, ‘Hey, can I have a selfie with you guys?’” Williamson says. “So I took a picture with these students and learned of Steven. Didn’t know Steven from Adam. And then literally a year or so later, Steven and I are crewmates.”
Preparing to take flight
The Purdue 1 crew members have continued getting to know one another since the initial announcement, and they have since added two newcomers to the group. Purdue and Virgin Galactic announced in April that veteran commercial astronaut Beth Moses (BS AAE ’92, MS AAE ’94) and retired senior research scientist Florence Stahura (MS chemistry ’92) would complete the five-person crew.
As their launch date approaches, the group hopes to train together to not just prepare for the mind-blowing experience of traveling in zero gravity and seeing Earth from beyond the clouds, but also the logistical issues they’ll need to conquer.
Collicott, Mizzi and Moses will all have research responsibilities during the trip — there will also be two Purdue-initiated autonomous experiments aboard the ship — so everyone involved needs to understand how to share the space within the spacecraft.
Collicott and Mizzi’s human-tended experiments will study fluid dynamics in zero-gravity conditions. Meanwhile, Moses will wear a set of health sensors that will allow researchers from Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering to monitor her physiological characteristics throughout the mission.
“At some point through our training, we want to try to choreograph how we all interact with one another so that everyone can really get the full value of what they’re doing,” Williamson says. “But Abby and Steven, in particular, will have a very specific task at hand.”
Pursuing your dreams
The Purdue 1 crew members are approaching their respective roles on the flight as opportunities to exemplify Purdue’s land-grant mission of teaching, research and engagement.
Collicott, Mizzi and Moses have the teaching and research aspects covered, so Williamson and Stahura are sharing the responsibility to engage the public about what this mission means.
And they have amazing stories to tell.
In Williamson’s case, the message is all about persistence. Traveling to space must have seemed unlikely for a first-generation college student whose parents — a General Motors alternator assembler and a sheet metal worker — had to work hard for everything they had. That reality is in part why attending Space Camp as a high school graduation gift is such a special memory for Williamson.
“I had such a beautiful time,” he says. “I fell in love with what they do, how they do it, the educational component to it, their curriculum, the simulators and all the things of that nature. But it’s also teaching you teamwork and leadership skills and how to communicate effectively with one another.”
He enjoyed it so much, in fact, that he has returned twice for camp as an adult, including a six-day visit earlier this year where he and Edna both participated in the Adult Advanced Space Academy. The unique bonding experience inspired the Williamsons to sponsor young people of limited means so they could also enjoy Space Camp.
“It was so cool just to go back and visit,” Williamson says. “I think because of my passion for Space Camp and what they do for these young students, adults and educators, I want to do everything I can to give back to them.”
After all, you never know what such a formative experience might spark in a bright, ambitious young person. Williamson’s story is proof, as he proceeded from Space Camp to Purdue, where he expanded his engineering and interpersonal skills, and into a three-decade career, where he became a leader in his field.
Williamson wants others to see where he is today, on the cusp of achieving an unlikely dream, and recognize that amazing things can happen for those who chase their passions with patience and persistence.
“What I like about this mission is we all have a unique lens of why we were selected or why we’re doing it,” Williamson says. “So much of this is from the heart for me, where for others, it is heart, but there’s also a tangible thing that they’re responsible for. The biggest thing that’s on me is what a beautiful platform. What a beautiful way to inspire others. What a beautiful way to say it doesn’t matter how you grew up. It doesn’t matter the path you took to get there. What matters is you’re still pursuing your dreams.
“Purdue talks a lot about the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap,” he adds. “That resonates with me very, very vividly.”
