The Senate on Monday confirmed Dava Newman as NASA deputy administrator by a vote of 87-0.

Newman is a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and of engineering systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She has been on the MIT faculty since 1993.

NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman. Photo: NASA.
NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman. Photo: NASA.

Newman’s research has included the development of a radical new spacesuit design that is tighter-fitting and would afford much greater mobility and lighter weight than today’s pressure suits. She has focused on quantifying astronaut performance in space, including computer modeling of the dynamics of human motion in microgravity conditions, according to a MIT statement in October announcing her nomination.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Monday in a statement called Newman’s work on the new spacesuit “legendary.”