Listen to this audio excerpt from Joe Pavicic, Artemis operations project engineer
Joe Pavicic will never forget when he told the Artemis launch director teams were NO-GO for launch.
Before Artemis I lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in November 2022, the launch team made multiple launch attempts the months prior.
“During a previous Artemis I launch attempt, there was an issue with engine three,” said Pavicic, operations project engineer who worked on the engines console during Artemis I. “One sensor was showing that it wasn’t seeing liquid hydrogen through it. It was showing that it was at ambient temperature.”
Joe pavicic
Operations Project Engineer
Prior to engine ignition, launch team controllers must first chill the engines before the cryogenic liquid propellant fuels and lifts the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft into the heavens and onward to the Moon. Chilling the engines ensures the hardware doesn’t get damaged when exposed to the super-cooled liquid hydrogen at -423 degrees Fahrenheit.
“We tried everything we could think of,” Pavicic recalls. “Any procedure we could try, we tried it, and we just never saw those rates that we should have.”
Thus, Pavicic, who is originally from West Palm Beach and studied aerospace engineering at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, went back to the drawing board with the rest of his team, working days and nights rewriting procedures and learning new lessons about the engines and sensors until they were finally able to get to a successful launch.
joe pavicic
Operations Project Engineer
NASA successfully launched and flew the Artemis I mission and now, Pavicic is working as one of the operations project engineers, continuing to help the launch team develop new launch commit criteria and procedures within the launch countdown ahead of Artemis II, the first crewed Artemis mission, which will send four astronauts around the Moon and back in 10 days next year.
