Get behind the scenes with a NASA engineer preparing to explore the moon!

In this exciting event, students from across the UK will have the chance to learn about the Artemis programme and the Orion spacecraft, meet Branelle Rodriguez live, hear about her career, practice skills used in her job, and ask their burning questions.

Four astronauts will venture around the Moon on Artemis II, the first crewed mission on NASA’s path to establishing a long-term presence at the Moon for science and exploration. The 10-day flight will test NASA’s foundational human deep space exploration capabilities for the first time with astronauts. Artemis II builds on the success of the uncrewed Artemis I in 2022, and will demonstrate a broad range of capabilities needed on deep space missions. Artemis II, the first crewed mission of NASA’s Artemis program, will send four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the Moon. This mission aims to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon for scientific exploration and discovery. Artemis II will test NASA’s deep space exploration capabilities, including the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, with astronauts for the first time. Building on the success of the uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022, Artemis II will demonstrate a wide array of capabilities required for deep space missions and pave the way for Artemis III, which will land the first woman on the Moon.

So who is managing this mission? 

Branelle Rodriguez currently serves as the Manager of Program Integration and Artemis II Vehicle Manager for the Orion Program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. Rodriguez focuses on overseeing the end-to-end development and production of the Artemis II Orion spacecraft and providing program leadership for integration and mission execution. She also oversees other various integration efforts within Orion, working to solve programmatic and technical issues through assessments and trade studies, and supports Artemis campaign integration activities, helping to coordinate Orion’s efforts with larger Artemis long-duration goals of returning humanity back to the Moon.

Meet the Expert

Branelle Rodriguez 

Manager of Program Integration and Artemis II Vehicle Manager, Orion Program

Throughout her 17-year career at NASA, Rodriguez has had significant human spaceflight experience leading integration efforts and development projects. Prior to joining the Orion program, she was the International Space Station (ISS) On-Orbit Engineering Manager in the ISS Program Office, leading the ISS Mission Engineering Room (MER). In this role she provided key leadership and integration of the ISS MER with the ISS Mission Management Chair, ISS Program Management, and Vehicle Office Management on ISS operations and anomaly resolution. Throughout her ISS MER career, she has led several on-orbit flight investigation teams to resolve real time on-orbit anomalies, led subsystem and technical disciplines through various Visiting Vehicle integration efforts, and coordinated with multiple organisation and international partners for day-to-day ISS operations. Prior to her work in the ISS MER, Rodriguez has had notable flight hardware development experience from her time in the JSC Engineering Directorate, leading several projects involving multiple NASA centres and contractor teams through all phases of design and hardware certification, including managing schedules, budgets, and contracts.

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