A Day in the Life of an Aerospace Engineer

“We have a successful burn,” announced Flight Director Jeff Radigan at the conclusion of our simulation last week.

My name is Victor Yu, and I work as an Aerospace Engineer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX, specializing in Mission Design and Trajectory Analysis. After earning my Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Binghamton University in the Fall of 2020, I was directly hired by NASA to support the Artemis program, following the completion of my internship rotation.

In my role as an aerospace engineer, I primarily engage in software development. Aerospace engineering encompasses a wide range of disciplines, including fluid dynamics, structural mechanics, and thermodynamics. My focus is on astrodynamics, which involves applying celestial mechanics to solve practical problems related to spacecraft motion.

At NASA, I am chiefly responsible for trajectory development for the Artemis II mission, the first crewed mission to the Moon since the Apollo era. Mission design involves not only planning the nominal mission but also preparing for off-nominal scenarios. For example, I lead the development of the Trans-Lunar Injection (TLI) abort missions. This entails designing and optimizing thousands of trajectories to ensure the crew can safely return to Earth in the event of an anomaly during the TLI burn, while adhering to flight rule constraints. This process requires evaluating multiple launch epochs in minute-by-minute windows, resulting in hundreds of thousands of potential scenarios.

To achieve this, we utilize an in-house trajectory optimization software called Copernicus. Manually generating these trajectories would be impractical, so we develop automated processes to handle this task. Consequently, a significant portion of my work involves writing Python scripts to interface with Copernicus, running thousands of cases, and post-processing the results. Ultimately, we generate a comprehensive set of abort mission scenarios covering various launch days and windows.

In addition to my engineering duties, I also participate in on-console work. NASA Johnson Space Center is divided into engineering and flight operations, with my role falling under the former. On-console, we are known as TARGO (Trajectory Analysis, RetarGeting, and Optimization Officer), supporting our flight operations counterparts, the FDO (Flight Dynamics Officer). The FDOs execute the burns and communicate in mission control, while we TARGOs provide them with engineering support and data to ensure the trajectory is accurate.

This aspect of my job involves conducting numerous real-time simulation operations to prepare for actual flights. The phrase “we have a successful burn,” whether referring to a nominal burn or an abort burn, is always gratifying to hear at the end of these sims.

Although my work at NASA is heavily focused on astrodynamics, which was not a specific offering at Binghamton University, the education I received there laid a crucial foundation for my career. While much of my expertise has been honed on the job, the fundamental principles of Newtonian physics that I learned during my studies have been invaluable. Everything in engineering boils down to the very fundamentals, and this is why I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge Professor Zaychik for imparting these fundamental concepts early in my college career.

Working at NASA is a dream come true, allowing me to contribute to groundbreaking missions that push the boundaries of human space exploration. Each day presents new challenges and opportunities to learn, making it an incredibly fulfilling career. I am proud to be part of the Artemis program and excited about what the future holds for space travel and exploration.

Ad Astra,
Victor Yu