NASA \ United Space Alliance
Orion
Orion
Early-Phase Electrical Systems Engineer
Ground Processing Bay Co-Designer
Harnessing & Power Distribution Strategy
Design Review & Traceability Contributor
Facility-to-Flight Integration Architect
Project Overview / MIssion Objectives
Orion is NASA’s next-generation crew vehicle, designed to carry astronauts beyond low Earth orbit to the Moon and beyond as part of the Artemis program. The capsule must survive deep space radiation, support long-duration missions, and execute high-speed reentry—all while remaining human-rated, fault-tolerant, and deeply integrated with systems like the Space Launch System (SLS) and Gateway.
During its early development phase, Orion was a dynamic and evolving system. Requirements shifted. Interfaces changed. Entire subsystems were in flux. This was the critical period for laying the foundation—resolving conflicts, defining baselines, and building the design discipline needed to reach the pad.
Roles and Responsibilities
As part of the Orion electrical systems team, I supported early-stage integration, trade studies, and subsystem interface coordination for the capsule and service module. My work focused on establishing viable paths for power, command, and signal flow across emerging spacecraft systems—with a sharp eye toward long-term maintainability and flight-readiness.
I contributed to multi-discipline technical discussions across NASA, Lockheed Martin, and ESA teams, helping define how new flight hardware would connect, communicate, and coexist in a shared vehicle environment. This included everything from wiring topologies and power budgets to grounding plans and redundancy strategies.
I also participated in design reviews, cross-checks, and validation planning, ensuring that what looked good on paper could hold up to the brutal demands of spaceflight.
Legacy
While the Orion vehicle has evolved since my time on the program, many of the trade decisions and architectural choices I helped shape remain embedded in its design DNA. My work during this ambiguous, high-stakes phase taught me how to create clarity where none exists—and how to build collaboration across competing priorities and imperfect information.
The capsule is flying now. And I still see echoes of the work we did, deep in the wiring and across the interface boundaries.
Highlight: Designing the Orion Ground Processing Bay
Before Orion could fly, it had to be built—and building it meant creating a new kind of processing environment, tailored to a modern deep space vehicle. I played a key role in the design and development of the Orion integration and checkout bay at the Operations & Checkout (O&C) Building at Kennedy Space Center, helping establish how the capsule would be assembled, tested, and validated on the ground.
This wasn’t just a facility upgrade. It was a systems engineering challenge of its own: ensuring the processing flow could accommodate electrical verification, instrumentation access, connector mating, and flight hardware sensitivity—all while coordinating with construction teams, integration leads, and evolving vehicle requirements.
My contributions included:
Defining electrical access points and routing logic within the facility layout
Coordinating test stand positioning, power distribution, and harness handling protocols
Working alongside ground systems engineers to align facility buildout with vehicle constraints
Establishing interface clearances and workflow to support safe, repeatable integration operations
The result was a processing environment that set the blueprint for how Orion is built and tested to this day. This work continues to impact Artemis missions as the program scales up toward lunar flight.