Of all of the attainable entry factors to NASA, the company’s SkillBridge Program has been instrumental in serving to servicemembers transition from the army and into civilian careers. Provided in partnership with the Division of Protection (DoD), this system allows people to spend their remaining months of army service working with a NASA workplace or group. SkillBridge fellows work anyplace from 90 to 180 days, contributing their distinctive skillsets to the company whereas constructing their community and data.
The Johnson House Heart in Houston hosted NASA’s first SkillBridge fellow in 2019, paving the way in which for dozens of others to comply with. SkillBridge contributors should not assured a job provide on the finish of their fellowship, however many have gone on to just accept full-time positions with NASA. About 25 of these former fellows at the moment work at Johnson, filling roles as different as their army experiences.
Miguel Shears retired from the Marine Corps in November 2023. He ended his 30 years of service because the administration, teachers, and operations chief for the Marine Corps College in Quantico, Virginia, the place he was additionally an adjunct professor. Shears accomplished a SkillBridge fellowship with FOD in the summertime and fall of 2023, supporting the academic methods design staff. He was employed as a full-time worker upon his army retirement and at the moment serves as an educational methods designer for the Teacher Coaching Module, Mentorship Module, and Spaceflight Academy. He conducts coaching wants evaluation for FOD, as properly.
Ever Zavala was very aware of Johnson earlier than turning into a SkillBridge fellow. He spent the final three of his almost 24-year Air Drive profession serving because the deputy director of the DoD Human Spaceflight Payloads Workplace at Johnson. His staff oversaw the event, integration, launch, and operation of payloads internet hosting DoD experiments on small satellites and the Worldwide House Station. He additionally turned an authorized capsule communicator, or capcom, in December 2022, and was the lead capcom for SpaceX’s twenty eighth industrial resupply companies mission to the orbiting laboratory.
Zavala’s SkillBridge fellowship was in Johnson’s Astronaut Workplace, the place he labored as a capcom, capcom teacher, and an integration engineer supporting the Extravehicular Exercise and Human Floor Mobility Program. He was concerned in creating a coaching wants evaluation and company simulators for the human touchdown system, amongst different initiatives.
He formally joined the middle staff as a full-time contractor in August 2024. He’s at the moment a flight operations security officer throughout the Flight Operations Directorate (FOD) and continues to function a part-time capcom.
Carl Johnson thanks his spouse for serving to him discover a path to NASA. Whereas she was a Pathways intern — and his girlfriend on the time — she gave him a tour of the middle that impressed him to hitch the company when he was prepared to depart the Military. She helped join him to one of many middle’s SkillBridge coordinators and the remainder is historical past.
Johnson was chosen for a SkillBridge fellowship within the Dynamic System Take a look at Department. From February to June 2023, he supported growth of the lunar terrain car floor take a look at unit and contributed to the Active Response Gravity Offload System (ARGOS), which simulates diminished gravity for astronaut coaching.
Johnson formally joined the middle staff as {an electrical} engineer within the Engineering Directorate’s Software program, Robotics, and Simulation Division in September 2023. He’s at the moment creating a brand new ARGOS spacewalk simulator and coaching as an operator and take a look at director for an additional ARGOS system.
Johnson holds {an electrical} engineering diploma from the USA Navy Academy. He was on lively obligation within the Military for 10 years and concluded his army profession as an teacher and small group chief for the Engineer Captains Profession Course. In that position, he was chargeable for instructing, mentoring, and getting ready the subsequent technology of engineer captains.
Kevin Quinn served within the Navy for 22 years. His final position was upkeep senior chief with Air Take a look at and Analysis Squadron 31, generally known as “the Mud Devils.” Quinn managed the operations and upkeep of 33 plane, guaranteeing their readiness for advanced missions and contributing to developmental flight assessments and search and rescue missions. He utilized that have to his SkillBridge fellowship in high quality assurance at Ellington Subject in 2024. Quinn labored to reinforce flight security and astronaut coaching throughout numerous plane, together with the T-38, WB-57, and the Tremendous Guppy. He has continued contributing to these initiatives since being employed as a full-time high quality assurance worker in 2025.
Andrew Ulat retired from the Air Drive after serving for 21 years as an intercontinental ballistic missile launch management officer and strategic operations advisor. His final position within the army was as a director of workers on the Air Command and Workers School at Maxwell Air Drive Base in Montgomery, Alabama. There he served as a graduate-level teacher instructing worldwide safety ideas to mid-level officers and civilian counterparts from all branches of the army and numerous federal businesses.
Ulat began his SkillBridge fellowship as an integration engineer in Johnson’s X-Lab, supporting avionics, energy, and software program integration for the Gateway lunar area station. Ulat transitioned immediately from his fellowship into an identical full-time place at Johnson in Might 2024.
Ariel Vargas transitioned to NASA after serving for 5 years within the Military. His final position within the army was as a sign officer, which concerned main groups managing safe communications and community operations in dynamic and mission-critical environments within the Center East and the USA.
Vargas accomplished his SkillBridge fellowship in November 2023, supporting Johnson’s Workplace of the Chief Info Officer (OCIO). Throughout his fellowship, he led a center-wide wi-fi augmentation challenge that modernized Johnson’s connectivity.
He turned a full-time civil servant in Might 2024 and at the moment serves because the enterprise operations and partnerships lead inside OCIO, supporting a digital transformation initiative. On this position, he leads efforts to streamline inner enterprise operations, handle strategic partnerships, and drive cross-functional collaboration.
“My time within the army taught me the worth of service, management, and adaptableness—qualities that I now apply each day in assist of NASA’s mission,” Vargas mentioned. “I’m proud to be a part of the Johnson staff and hope my story can encourage different service members contemplating the SkillBridge pathway.”