Earlier than astronauts enterprise across the Moon on Artemis II, the company’s first crewed mission to the Moon since Apollo, Mark Cavanaugh helps ensure the Orion spacecraft is secure and space-ready for the journey forward.
As an Orion integration lead at NASA’s Johnson House Middle in Houston, he ensures the spacecraft’s vital programs— in each the U.S.-built crew module and European-built service module—come collectively safely and seamlessly.
With practically a decade of expertise at NASA, Cavanaugh presently works throughout the Orion Crew and Service Module Workplace at Johnson. He oversees the technical integration of the European Service Module, which offers energy, propulsion, and life assist to Orion throughout Artemis missions to the Moon. His work consists of aligning and verifying important programs to maintaining the crew alive, together with oxygen, nitrogen, water storage, temperature regulation, and spacecraft buildings.
Along with his integration work, Cavanaugh is an Orion Mission Analysis Room (MER) supervisor. The MER is the engineering nerve middle throughout Artemis flights, answerable for real-time monitoring of the Orion spacecraft and real-time decision-making. From prelaunch to splashdown, Cavanaugh will lead a staff of engineers who monitor car well being and standing, troubleshoot anomalies, and talk straight with the flight director to make sure the mission stays secure and on monitor.
Cavanaugh’s ardour for area exploration started early. “I’ve wished to be an aerospace engineer since I used to be six years outdated,” he mentioned. “My uncle, who can also be an aerospace engineer, used to take me to wind tunnel assessments and flight museums as a child.”
That keenness solely deepened after a fifth-grade journey from Philadelphia to Houston along with his grandfather. “My dream of working at NASA Johnson began after I visited the middle for the primary time,” he mentioned. “Going from being a fifth grader using the tram on the tour to contributing to the nice work executed at Johnson has been really unimaginable.”
Turning that childhood dream into actuality didn’t include a straight path. Cavanaugh graduated from Pennsylvania State College in 2011, the identical 12 months NASA’s House Shuttle Program ended. With jobs within the area business briefly provide, he took a place with Boeing in Houston, engaged on the Worldwide House Station’s Passive Thermal Management System. He later supported thermal groups for the Artemis Moon rocket referred to as the House Launch System, and the Starliner spacecraft that flew astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams throughout their Boeing Crew Flight Take a look at mission, earlier than a mentor flagged a NASA job posting that turned out to be the proper match.
He joined NASA because the deputy system supervisor for Orion’s Passive Thermal Management System, finally moving into his present management function on the broader Orion integration staff. “I’ve been very fortunate to work with a number of the greatest and most supportive teammates you possibly can think about,” he mentioned.
Cavanaugh says collaboration and empathy had been key to fixing challenges alongside the best way. “I’ve discovered to take a look at issues from the opposite individual’s perspective,” he mentioned. “We’re all working towards the identical unimaginable objective, even when we don’t all the time agree. That mindset helps preserve issues constructive and prevents misunderstandings.”
He additionally emphasizes the significance of inventive problem-solving. “For me, overcoming technical challenges comes right down to searching for completely different views, questioning assumptions, and never being afraid to attempt one thing new—even when it sounds just a little ridiculous at first.”
Outdoors of labor, Cavanaugh fuels his love of pace and precision by using certainly one of his three bikes. He has even taken laps on the Circuit of the Americas monitor in Austin, Texas.
When he isn’t on the monitor or within the management room, Cavanaugh provides again by means of scholar outreach. “The factor I all the time stress after I discuss to college students is that nothing is not possible,” he mentioned. “I by no means thought I’d get to work within the area business, not to mention at NASA. However I stayed open to alternatives—even those that didn’t match what I initially imagined for myself.”