NASA podcast Episode 180 Artemis Mission Management
1:09:25 · Ras67 · 2021-02-01
Gary Jordan (Host): Houston, we have a podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center, Episode 180, “Artemis Mission Management.” I'm Gary Jordan and I'll be your host today. On this podcast, we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, astronauts, all to let you know what's going in the world of human spaceflight. Humans are returning to the Moon in a sustainable way through the Artemis program. Getting the boots of the first woman and the next man on the lunar surface will take a large integrated team and a lot of intricate planning. There will be an uncrewed test flight first to demonstrate the capabilities of the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion deep space capsule. Then a test flight with humans onboard that will break a number of previous spaceflight records will follow. Going into this detailed landscape of the management of future Artemis missions and the mission profile of some these upcoming Artemis missions is Mike Sarafin, Artemis Mission Manager. As the Mission Manager, it is Mike's job to chair the Mission Management Team that brings together all of the critical function areas of an Artemis mission and analyzes and accepts the risks. So, let's get right into it, Artemis Mission Management with Mike Sarafin. Enjoy. [ Music] Host: Mike Sarafin, thanks for coming on Houston We Have A Podcast today. Mike Sarafin: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here to talk about these exciting Artemis missions we have ahead of us. Host: Yeah, right. Returning to the Moon, not a bad thing to be a part of. How does it feel to be -- I mean, that's quite a title, Mike, is Artemis Mission Manager. It sounds like your kind of in charge of the leading the charge here for organizing what will be a Moon mission. Mike Sarafin: Yeah. So effectively, the role is at the top decision authority when it comes to executing the mission. We've got an amazing team of engineers off designing and building and testing the hardware right now. When it's ready to fly, the ball passes to the operations team and then to myself as the Mission Manager, and it's up to us to execute the mission and accomplish these agency goals and objectives that we've set. Host: And you're no stranger to executing the mission, right? You've been a part of the shuttle program, the International Space Station program, you've even been part of the Orion program and in the operations world. Can you tell me a little bit about your background and some of your experience in all of these different programs? Mike Sarafin: Yes. So, you're right in that I lived in the operations realm for 22 of my 27 years in my NASA career. I supported initially as a flight controller. My callsign was GNC which was Guidance Nav[igation] and Control and I did that for a decade in the shuttle program supporting all phases of flight, launch, orbit, rendezvous, docking. We serviced the Hubble Space Telescope entry and we flew missions to the Mir space station and then did the early International Space Station assembly missions and around that time I was looking for something different, for some additional growth opportunities, and they opened a opportunity up to be a flight director and I applied in late 2004 and was selected, fortunately selected, with an amazing group of flight directors in 2005 and, you know, that group of nine is just a stellar bunch of folks to be a part of and it was a real privilege to be alongside that group of fellow flight directors, and then to learn the ropes as a flight director. And then I got to support a dozen missions as a space shuttle flight director, for those I was the lead for as well as International Space Station missions and then Orion's maiden flight test called Exploration Flight Test-1, so this Artemis I will be my 65th mission and I very much look forward to that. Host: Mike, you said your 65th mission. That's quite a number of -- quite an experience, quite a list of missions under your belt. How do you feel? Do you feel like you're ready for this next phase of flight, just given everything that you've done? I mean, you just went over like all this -- all the different programs. You think you're ready for this next challenge and you already talked about the teams that are a part of it, but your thoughts about just this upcoming era that we're in, Moon missions? Mike Sarafin: I would say a qualified yes. We've got probably 10,000 things we've got to get ready between now and Artemis I mission and we've got an amazing team that we work together with at the Kennedy Space Center, the Marshall Space Flight Center, and the Johnson Space Center, all pull it together for the rocket, the spacecraft, the ground systems, the launch team, the recovery team, the flight team, and you know, we have a march, a marathon ahead of us to get to the Flight Readiness Review and that's when we'll be ready to fly. We still have some training in front of us. We still have some decisions to make as it pertains to flight readiness an