From runner to rocket scientist

A version of this article originally appeared in Go Seawolves.

When Artemis II launched for its flyby of the Moon in April 2026, UAA project management graduate student and cross country runner Drew Johnson played a role in the mission.

"My position at NASA is arms and umbilicals engineering for the Artemis program," Johnson said. "Everything that connects to the rocket while it's sitting on the launch pad - fueling lines, electrical connections, purge hoses, environmental conditioning and even astronaut crew access, all runs through the arms and umbilicals. We test the arms for retract functionality, mate them to the rocket, prep and monitor the arms during launch countdown, and when the rocket launches, we assess the damage and try to do it better the next time."

Johnson, a native of Colorado, came to Alaska in fall 2018 as a mechanical engineering student.

"I went to UAA because it had a good engineering program, a good cross country team and the great outdoors, which is everything I wanted," he said.

His first season of cross country for the Seawolves was a positive one, helping the team to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference title and an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Championships.

A middle-distance runner, he made a bigger impact on the track. At the 2019 GNAC Indoor Track and Field Championships, he finished second in the mile, third in the distance medley relay and sixth in the 4x400m. He anchored the distance medley relay to a school record time (9:50.04) and a seventh-place finish, earning All-American honors at NCAAs.

His outdoor season culminated with a third-place finish in the 1,500m and a seventh-place showing in the 800m at the conference championships.

The hardest part of his freshman season had nothing to do with running or academics, however.

"The budget cuts that swept the university in the summer of 2019 caused me to transfer," Johnson said. "I didn't want to leave, and it was always a sore spot for me that I got driven out by that."

"Drew told me he was leaving shortly after the completion of his freshman year," said Head Coach Ryan McWilliams. "With the budget cuts and limbo we were in, he didn't want to wait around just to find out there wasn't a program for him to run in anymore. The day I found out we would be funded and have a team, I called him to let him know, and he had, unfortunately, just a few hours earlier, signed with Kent State."

While at Kent State University, he landed on the podium multiple times at the Mid-American Conference championships and earned a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering.

Johnson returned to Alaska in fall 2022 to start a master's degree in project management and complete his athletic career, finishing third in the mile at the indoor conference meet and third in the 1,500m at the outdoor championships.

"It was a really cool thing to have him finish here," said McWilliams. "The year he transferred out was my first year as head coach, so it was really special to me personally to get Drew back and have him finish up his racing career with us. I felt like it really closed the loop on a tumultuous start to a head coaching career."

"Running was a massive part of making me who I am today," said Johnson, who is the fastest miler in school history. "It taught me that any challenges can be made easier, just by having the right teammates going through those challenges with you. It also taught me that success does not come overnight, but through years of consistency, knowing that through good days and bad days, you become great by never failing to show up and give it your all."

"My college experience taught me to become adaptable. Nobody will use every single class they take in college, but knowing how to learn in different ways, adapting to new teaching styles and having a habit of facing new problems prepared me for my job at NASA. College didn't give me the answers to the problems I solve now, but it taught me how to understand the problem and build my own solutions."

Johnson landed his dream job at NASA and started in September 2023.

"The best part of my job is the responsibility on launch day," he said. "It's stressful knowing that my systems are a vital part of a successful launch, but we prepare for months and years for that moment, and there's no feeling like seeing the rocket clear the tower and knowing you helped it get there, especially with a crew on board. The worst part of my job is the attention to detail. There is no tolerance for error in human space flight, so every bolt, washer and sometimes every speck of dust is accounted for. The job can be tedious and seemingly over-thorough at times, but it's all part of what makes us confident in a 100% success rate on launch day.

"Many people don't know that the Artemis II launch was delayed several times, and one of the major delays was due to a liquid hydrogen leak from the primary fueling umbilical, which can be caused by one of those specks of dust if not seen. So my department worked around the clock to fix the leak and get the rocket back on track. On Sunday night, Feb. 8, I spent the whole evening in a particle-free clean suit, pressed up against the engine section of the rocket to fix the hydrogen leak while the Super Bowl played on a laptop behind me."