Artemis II is showing how federal education and operational experience come together in space

Guest:	Dan Linehan
Title:	Science writer with the Naval Postgraduate School
Summary:	Several Artemis team members bring military and academic backgrounds that reflect a long‑term federal investment in advanced education. Observers say the mission highlights how institutions like the Naval Postgraduate School translate classroom learning into real‑world mission execution.

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Interview transcript

Terry Gerton We have all been marveling at the pictures that are coming back from the Artemis crew on their journey around the moon and they’re due to splash down tonight. But before we get to that, I want you to help us put the mission in context. What really was NASA trying to prove or learn with this flight?

Dan Linehan Yeah, and views expressed here are my own. You know, I’m doing this in my capacity as a career-long science writer. You know I think there’s multiple things that they did. They have a science mission, but they also have a flight test mission. And so this is the first time that this launch system has been used with humans. It’s the first on the capsule’s been used with humans, and these are all new instruments. These are all the procedures that this crew of four is having to now execute. They’ve trained really, really hard for this. They’ve been trained for years, and now they’re trying to execute. But the reality is, they’re now in space, and space is a lot different than in simulators on Earth.

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Terry Gerton You’ve been sitting there at Mission Control in Houston, what have you seen?

Dan Linehan Well, I tell you, you know, it’s a bit surreal for me because being able to, I’ve been down to mission control four times and overlooking the nerve center of this mission. So every aspect of this space flight is being monitored by multiple, multiple stations throughout mission control. And if anybody has seen the old movies like Houston, you now, those Houston mission controls. It’s just like that except a lot more modern. And now they’re even bumping up the number of stations for, say for example, science. So you had asked, what is NASA trying to do? Not only are they trying to learn about how to operate a rocket to the moon and back but they’re also learning more about the lunar surface so when it comes time to land, when it becomes time to put outputs on there, when it comes time to expand beyond the moon, they’re learning the necessary science that’s critical, right, to keep this program going. Because without the science and without the understanding, we’re setting ourselves up for failure. So this mission is, again, twofold. You have to make sure that technology’s working, the operations are going, but you have to understand and set the foundation for the science that’s gonna continue throughout this program.

Terry Gerton What kind of experience have you had there while you’ve been watching this unfold?

Dan Linehan Well, I think one of the most spectacular experiences is being in mission control during this mission and actually seeing the full screen with all the operation parameters. And I was there watching the Capcom, who are the people communicating directly with the astronauts, the flight director. Now, the astronauts were asleep for most of the time, but at the very end, when they started to wake up, they played Jim Lovell’s beautiful message to them, congratulating them for this space flight. And, of course, Lovell has passed away, he passed away last year, so it was pre-recorded. So it was pretty bittersweet because Jim Lovelle was the commander of the Apollo 13, whose record was broken on this mission. The record meaning the longest distance from Earth. And so that was an actual, a very incredible feat to have done for this mission. And I think the other fantastic experience I had was sitting in the Orion simulator. So they have the full-size mock-up of the … spacecraft, and what it does is it does everything the spacecraft does and it mirrors it. In fact, if they have to test something out on the spacecraft they’ll often do it there, maybe the crew’s asleep, and they’ll test things out and then and they’ll send them these procedures. So being able to sit in that chair, I was in the commander’s seat, had control, full manual control, and I am able to shift around, and I was steering the moon in the middle, you know, to the middle of the window that I had. It was fantastic. You know, I’ve been in simulators before, but nothing like this. This was definitely out of the world.

Terry Gerton I’m speaking with Dan Linehan. He’s a science writer for the Naval Postgraduate School. Dan, let’s bring this back to NPS, because two of the four members of this crew are NPS alumni with military backgrounds. How does that combination of operational experience and advanced education prepare astronauts for a mission like this, where you mentioned they’ve trained for years and years, but actually being in space is something completely different?

Dan Linehan Yeah, I think that combination of education and operational experience that we offer at NPS is vital. We prepare these officers for missions that are like this. And so what I mean is, Reid [Wiseman] and Victor [Glover] are both former naval aviators. They are both former test pilots. And so when they’re working in a situation like this, this capsule moving across space, things can go wrong. And when they go wrong, they need to be able to have that mindset of, ‘hey, I’ve [done] this. I’ve here before. I’ve been in situations where if something goes wrong, it’s life or death.’ And that’s a really important thing. And also, being that it’s a new system, they’re used to pushing the envelopes of system, learning what, knowing what they need to know, or following the different procedures in order to kind of really understand how this thing operates. So the next person who comes in is now standing kind of on the shoulders of giants type. So they’ve kind of done as much as they can. And so I think the education and their service has, again, the test pilots and naval aviators are crucial for that. Then you come into the knowledge part of it. When you come to NPS, you’re getting an advanced degree. Some people get it in space systems operations, some get it in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering. There’s all these facets which then you can use these skill sets and this training that we have to help complete the mission, to help make sure the mission that’s laid out in NASA is understood and executed. And that education is just vital to that.

Terry Gerton It’s not just training the astronauts, although I think the tally is 44 former astronauts have been through the Naval Postgraduate School, but you’re also involved in the science. Tell us about how else NPS gets involved with the NASA programs.

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Dan Linehan Yeah, that’s a good question. So in the science we’ve been participating in the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is also going around the moon at this particular time. And we had our faculty and students work out systems that helped make the maneuvering of that satellite more efficient and it could save basically more fuel. Now, a satellite, for example, has a limited amount of fuel, and that fuel is needed to move it. And once you run out, the satellite doesn’t move, and you can’t image things, you can’t turn it, even the International Space Station, once it runs out of fuel, it can’t maneuver and it needs to maneuver. So we helped figure out ways, for example, on how to help extend the life of a satellite because it’s very expensive and difficult to get to space. So that’s, for an example, one of our programs. And what happened for this mission is when Integrity spacecraft came at its closest approach. NASA had the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter try to image it. And so that data is still being transmitted and analyzed. So hopefully we’ll see to that soon and see some, maybe some great pictures taken from one robotic spacecraft to a live spacecraft.

Terry Gerton And how will you bring the learning from this mission back into the NPS curriculum?

Dan Linehan Yeah, so I think what happens is there’s multiple, multiple things here. So as spacecraft systems are being developed for longer duration, you know, we are hoping that we will have the students who are going to be helping to maybe man the flight controls, maybe engineer new systems that are going be needed for sustaining life on the Moon for longer durations. There is a multitude of things that this mission is going to uncover and require great minds to figure out so we can just keep moving forward.

Terry Gerton And what will you be watching there in Houston on this last day of the mission as they return to Earth?

Dan Linehan Well, I am so excited by watching the images of that capsule from when it’s entering, re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, floating down into the ocean, and the Navy coming to recover the astronauts safely and the capsule. And it’s amazing because the Navy did the initial training, NASA selected them, and now the Navy is coming back to again finish the mission, bring them back safely. And so I think being here at Houston, where they’re eventually gonna come back, it’s, I think that’s just really a wonderful thing for me to be kind of, you know, this close observer, although I’m kind of far away in a way, but I also feel like I’m kinda in the mix somewhat, you know reporting on this. So I think for me that’s gonna be, you know, a really special moment.

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