Thought Leader Series

Sept. 29 6 P.M. CT

NASA’s Orion spacecraft is built to take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before. Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. Orion will launch atop NASA’s rocket, the Space Launch System.

On the first integrated mission, Artemis I, an uncrewed Orion will venture thousands of miles beyond the Moon over the course of about six weeks. The mission will pave the way for flights with astronauts beginning with Artemis II.

Learn about the spacecraft, the research aboard Orion and how it’s supporting our return to the Moon and beyond in our September Thought Leader Series “Artemis I: The Orion Spacecraft,” presented by the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Robert Hanley

Robert Hanley is the technical assistant for the Vehicle Integration Office in the Orion Program. Hanley provides technical management support of the Orion Mission Evaluation Room, called the “MER”, for Artemis I. The MER provides highly specialized engineering support for any problems that may arise during the flight from launch to splashdown. Hanley also supports flight crew systems integration and human rating certification for future missions, including Artemis II, that will have astronauts onboard. Hanley has been at NASA’s Johnson Space Center since 1987 working with the space shuttle, International Space Station, and Gateway programs. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

Jeff Fox

Jeff Fox is a chief engineer in the Astronaut Office/Rapid Prototyping Lab at NASA Johnson Space Center. He is part of a long line of family who have worked at NASA, father, mother, sister, brother-in-law and nephew. He began his career at NASA in 1984 after graduating from Texas A&M University with a degree in Industrial Engineering. He led a flight demonstration with the FAA testing augmented reality concepts aboard the Challenger 604 Flight Inspection aircraft. Fox served as the Orion Cockpit Deputy for several years, leading initial development of several early mockups and testing. He began his present position with the Rapid Prototyping Lab (RPL) designing cockpit display and control interfaces for the Orion, Gateway, and several Human Lander System teams. He championed the creation of a parachute Debris Monitoring Tool used in flight aboard U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopters during Orion parachute testing at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground, AZ. The tool was also used on board a U.S. Navy Seahawk helicopter over the Pacific Ocean during Orion Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) from the spacecraft parachute deploy to splashdown recovery sequence; preparations are underway to do the same for Artemis I.

Rosemary Sargent

Rosemary Sargent is the Orion Artemis II mission manager for Lockheed Martin Space. In this role, she is responsible for all aspects of mission-specific planning, integration, and execution for the first crewed Artemis spacecraft. She serves as the primary Lockheed Martin customer interface to the NASA mission/vehicle manager and partners with the NASA vehicle manager to ensure mission success for the entire assembly, test, launch and integration phase through flight, crew module recovery, and post-flight analysis. Sargent graduated with honors from the University Scholars Program at Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor of science degree in Electrical Engineering and received her masters of business administration degree in Management and Organizational Behavior from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California.