Inspiring short videos showcasing NASA’s engineers from various fields sharing the personal experiences and inspirations that led them to pursue a career in engineering. Each video features a different engineer, providing a unique and intimate glimpse into their journey from childhood dreams to professional achievements.

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Week 2

 

Melissa Jones

Chief of Operations and Test Management
Exploration Ground Systems Program
NASA Kennedy Space Center

 

Melissa Jones originally wanted to be a heart surgeon, but she found greater joy in engineering. It’s no wonder – her parents and grandparents worked in the U.S. space program.

Now, Jones is in charge of staffing, resources, and facilities used for flight hardware processing, launch, and recovery for the Artemis missions that will send humans to live and work on the surface of the Moon.

 

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Paul Kessler

Human Systems and Habitation Integration Lead
Lunar Architecture Team
NASA Johnson Space Center

 

Paul Kessler got hands-on experience solving problems in a hospital trauma center, but it wasn’t what he was looking for. Engineering called him.

At Johnson Space Center, Kessler is the lead for human systems and integration on the Lunar Architecture Team, helping understand how astronauts can live and work sustainably on the surface of the Moon.

 

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Parul Agrawal

Orion Operations Project Manager
NASA Ames Research Center

 

Since childhood, Parul Agrawal has had a deep interest in understanding how things work. After graduating from university, she applied her curiosity at NASA, contributing to the designs of heatshield materials for spacecrafts carrying humans and cargo to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations.

Today, she works as the project manager for NASA’s Orion spacecraft operations at Ames Research Center in California. Orion is the crew capsule that will take Artemis astronauts to the Moon and beyond and then bring them back to Earth.

 

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Kan Yang

Team Lead
Instrument Design Lab
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

 

To Kan Yang, space exploration is one of humanity’s noblest pursuits.

As the Team Lead for the Instrument Design Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Yang has helped develop instrument design concepts for a variety of missions, including astronaut-deployed instruments for the Artemis campaign and and astrophysics telescopes that will help us answer some of humanity’s oldest questions — such as whether we are alone in the universe.