Jessie Jane Cordell

Jane Cordell devoted her career to public service, excellence, and innovation through her work at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. Beginning her career as a secretary in Human Resources, Jane quickly distinguished herself through her diligence, intelligence, and ability to understand complex systems. Her early years at Ames laid the foundation for a career that would ultimately place her at the financial heart of some of the center’s most significant and high-visibility projects.

Jane later transitioned into financial management, where she became a trusted resource analyst supporting multiple large-scale research and modernization efforts. Known for her precision, reliability, and deep institutional knowledge, she managed annual budgets, monthly financial reporting to NASA managers and NASA Headquarters, and oversaw contract finances for major programs that were critical to the agency’s mission.

Among her most notable roles, Jane served as the financial manager for the 12-Foot Pressure Wind Tunnel Restoration and Modernization Project, a congressionally funded initiative of exceptional scope and visibility. This landmark project returned the historic wind tunnel to its original six-atmosphere operating capability while fully modernizing its infrastructure. The project converted the tunnel’s controls from analog to digital systems and introduced a groundbreaking test section isolation system that allowed the tunnel to remain pressurized while rotating test sections—dramatically improving efficiency and testing flexibility for advanced aeronautics research. Jane’s financial stewardship helped ensure the success of a project that continues to support the nation’s needs for low-speed, low-turbulence, high-Reynolds-number aeronautical testing.

Jane also served as the financial manager for the Sensors 2000! (S2K!) Project, one of NASA Ames Research Center’s most innovative and interdisciplinary initiatives. Sensors 2000! focused on the research, design, and development of advanced biomedical sensors, biotelemetry, and instrumentation systems for spaceflight life sciences, with an emphasis on technology transfer to medical and commercial applications on Earth. The project pioneered implantable telemetry systems capable of monitoring physiological parameters such as pH, temperature, pressure, ECG, and EEG—technology that supported space missions and showed promise for use in human and fetal monitoring during and after surgery.

Sensors 2000! was remembered not only for its technical impact but also for its creative spirit. The team infused the project with a sense of fun and imagination, naming devices and spaces after science fiction favorites—the handheld external monitoring device known as the “Tricorder,” and the third-floor meeting space called “the Bridge.” Jane managed the complex finances and contracts behind this cutting-edge work, helping bring together engineers, scientists, universities, and industry partners in a true blend of space technology and real-world medical innovation.

Throughout her career, Jane Cordell was known as a steady, capable presence—someone others relied on to keep ambitious ideas grounded, funded, and moving forward. Her work quietly but powerfully supported NASA’s mission to advance science, technology, and human knowledge, leaving a lasting legacy in aeronautics research and biomedical innovation.

Jane’s contributions live on in the facilities she helped modernize, the technologies she helped bring to life, and the many colleagues who respected her professionalism and dedication. She will be remembered with gratitude and pride for the role she played in shaping meaningful, mission-driven work that reached far beyond the walls of NASA Ames.