Class of 2025: Jacob Davis is making giant leaps in advancing spaceflight missions
Name: Jacob Davis
College: College of Engineering
Major: Aerospace Engineering
Hometown: Christiansburg, Virginia
Plans after graduation: Currently enrolled in the Accelerated Undergraduate/Graduate Degree program, he will remain in Blacksburg to complete his master’s degree in aerospace engineering
Favorite Virginia Tech memory: Participating in the music scene as clarinet in the Marching Virginians as well as guitarist for local band Studio 249
In his four years at Virginia Tech, Jacob Davis has developed a strong passion for human spaceflight and fluid dynamics, forged professional and leadership skills, served the community, and worked with younger generations to bolster their interests in engineering and aerospace.
This spring, Davis will graduate with a bachelor of science in aerospace engineering. In recognition of his academic achievements and service to the university, he has been named the Outstanding Senior for the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering.
Preparing for landing
Davis was selected for NASA’s prestigious Pathways Internship program and has completed multiple rotations at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The program strategically hires interns in alignment with NASA’s future workforce needs, offering a direct pipeline to full-time employment at NASA upon graduation.
As an intern, he primarily supported the Human Landing System program by studying the implications of plume-surface interaction — the way hot engine exhaust plumes kick up the lunar soil as the lander touches down on lunar and Martian surfaces — to improve spacecraft stability, safety, and visibility.
The dust clouds of soil often interfere with the lander’s sensors and limit visibility, so Davis developed mathematical models and computational fluid dynamic solutions using data from nearly 200 test cases to improve understanding of plume-surface interaction and inform future lander designs.
Marshall Space Flight Center Aerosciences Branch Chief Christopher Morris first met Davis in 2023. “Plume-surface interaction (PSI) cratering is a complex discipline,” said Morris. “The ability to accurately predict PSI cratering is very important for ensuring the success of NASA landings on the Moon and Mars, and yet thus far there is no settled approach to this problem. Jacob’s spreadsheets of historical and recent data sets have become a concise and consolidated source of information on the PSI test programs for our branch.”
Hands-on experiential learning at NASA strengthened Davis’s passion for compressible fluid dynamics, propulsion systems, and human space flight. “NASA has greatly helped me expand upon my education by giving me the opportunity to explore real solutions to space missions by applying what I learn in school," he said.
Preparing to launch
Some of Davis’s space missions are a little closer to home. After joining the Orbital Launch Vehicle Team (OLVT), one of many rocketry-based student design teams on campus, he quickly gained hands-on experience in designing and building components for their current model, a two-stage rocket coined the Skipper II.
Unlike other rocketry teams, OLVT does not compete annually at a competition. Over the past nine years, the team has progressed toward its goal of crossing the Kármán line and putting a rocket into low Earth orbit. They have also been focused on reducing costs of academic payloads, helping to bridge the gap between amateur high-powered rocketry and NASA-level sounding rockets. A majority of the Skipper II’s components are being built in house at the Aerospace Engineering Design Laboratory.
As vice president of OLVT for over a year, Davis has spearheaded the team’s fundraising efforts, expanded outreach efforts into the community, and each week he leads general meetings for 80+ members.
“Through this role, I was able to hone my management, communication, and public speaking skills,” said Davis. “It’s been pretty satisfying to watch the newer members learn and grow through the experience of developing staging systems to improve our vehicle’s capabilities of reaching space.”
Preparing for the next mission
As a participant in the Accelerated Undergraduate/Graduate Degree program, Davis has already begun to earn credits toward his graduate degree. He plans to stay at Virginia Tech next year to complete his master’s degree in aerospace engineering.
“When I tell people I study aerospace engineering, it hits me that the things we get to do are really cool,” said Davis. “But I think what really sells it is the people, and how passionate everyone is about their work. When you go to a rocket launch with your whole team and watch the rocket fly off the rail, it's not just about the rocket — it's about all the people that it took to make it happen. It's a very infectious and exciting environment that just keeps you going at it.”
During his four years at Virginia Tech, Davis participated in the NASA Pathways Internship program at Marshall Space Flight Center; was a member of student design teams Design, Build, Fly and the Orbital Launch Vehicle Team; served as an aerospace and ocean engineering ambassador; was a member of Sigma Gamma Tau; was a member of the Marching Virginians; and worked as a residential advisor and program manager for the Center for Enhancement of Engineering Diversity (CEED) Summer Camps.
