Shooting for the Moon: A UCF Graduate’s Role in Artemis Mission Safety

Highlights

• As a Lockheed Martin spacecraft propulsion test engineer, Joseph Hoayun '22 '26MSEM helps meet the demands of NASA's ambitious Artemis launch schedule.

• Supporting the night shift at Kennedy Space Center, he helps verify that spacecraft systems for Artemis III, IV and V are ready for flight.

• Long before testing flight tanks, Hoayun fell asleep to his father reading science textbooks, igniting a lifelong fascination with space exploration.

Seconds after NASA's Orion capsule splashed into the Pacific Ocean, white spray rose around the scorched spacecraft. Telemetry streamed from Houston to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Inside the Test Launch Control Center thousands of miles from the splashdown, Joseph Hoayun '22 '26MSEM watched his monitor intently. His heart pounded as he tracked live data from the crew module uprighting system, a critical safety mechanism he had spent months testing and analyzing.

Recovery teams secure NASA's Orion capsule after the splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. UCF alum and Lockheed Martin Spacecraft Propulsion Test Engineer Joseph Hoayun '22 '26MSEM verified the critical uprighting system - visible as five orange balloons - that brought the capsule home. (Photo courtesy of Joseph Hoayun '22 '26MSEM)

As five vibrant orange balloons inflated and lifted the capsule upright in the rolling sea, Hoayun's shoulders finally dropped. Months of work gave way to pride. Orion was home. Mission accomplished.

"That capsule was my baby," says Hoayun, a spacecraft propulsion test engineer at Lockheed Martin, NASA's prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft used in the crewed Artemis II mission. "We were just freaking out - everything felt like it was moving in slow motion. It felt like hours from the time Orion entered our atmosphere until the astronauts safely emerged from the spacecraft."

While the world celebrated the first crewed lunar flyby in more than half a century, Hoayun's attention soon turned to the next mission. As NASA prepares to accelerate its launch schedule from one Artemis mission every two years to an aggressive eight-month cycle, the pressure on test engineering is mounting. To keep pace, his division is expanding from 70 to more than 100 personnel.

High-Pressure Stakes

Hoayun supports the night shift in an operation that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week at Kennedy Space Center. On any given evening, he might run a proof and leak test on an Orion service module, pressurizing flight propellant tanks to hundreds of pounds per square inch to verify structural integrity under extreme stress.

"People think you build one rocket at a time, but right now we have Artemis III, IV and V all in our building being tested in parallel by different teams," Hoayun says.

As leader of his division's Operational Excellence Team, he applies Six Sigma methods to improve tracking, refine testing workflows and eliminate waste. He estimates his team has saved Lockheed Martin hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Joseph Hoayun '22 '26MSEM stands with NASA's Space Launch System rocket. Supporting the night shift at Kennedy Space Center, he tests propulsion systems to keep the aggressive Artemis flight schedule on track. (Photo courtesy of Joseph Hoayun '22 '26MSEM)

"We do hundreds of distinct tests for each spacecraft cycle to ensure that all engines, electrical components, mechanical units and control systems work cleanly before they leave Earth," he says.

Ensuring spacecraft reliability requires precision and strict safety protocols, including a 70-foot evacuation radius during high-threshold testing to protect personnel from lethal hazards. A single miscalculation could destroy a $2 billion spacecraft or trigger a catastrophic explosion.

Hoayun credits his UCF bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and master's degree in engineering management through the university's College of Engineering and Computer Science with giving him the tools to thrive in these high-pressure environments. For his senior design project, he fondly recalls building and successfully flying a distributed electric propulsion aircraft. The complex engineering challenge required the same collaborative problem-solving he now relies on at Lockheed Martin.

But long before stepping onto UCF's campus, Hoayun discovered his passion for solving problems. As a child, he watched Apollo 13 and was captivated by the scene in which engineers race against the clock to build a makeshift carbon dioxide filter.

"Watching them solve a life-or-death engineering problem in real time made me say, 'I want to be the guy in the control room doing rapid problem-solving,' " he says.

Read Him Like a Book

Hoayun's dad, a science teacher at Orlando's Corner Lake Middle School, recognized his son's fascination with space early. Instead of traditional bedtime stories like Goodnight Moon, his father read him school textbooks or set up kitchen experiments to explain thermodynamics and chemistry. When Hoayun reached middle school, he landed right in his dad's honors class.

"Getting to touch a spacecraft and see your work blast into orbit every day is a full-circle blessing."

"I wouldn't necessarily recommend having your dad as your teacher," Hoayun says with a chuckle. "He loved using me as the class guinea pig for demonstrations, but I couldn't complain - he was my ride home!"

After submitting about 400 job applications, Hoayun landed his dream job. In a few years, he says he may return to UCF to pursue a doctorate. But for now, at just 26, he's focused on preparing the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis III mission.

His work supports preparations for the precise maneuvers needed to bring Orion and commercial lunar landers together in orbit, helping pave the way for astronauts to return to the moon's surface.

"Each mission is progressively more complex and difficult," Hoayun says. "But that means you never get bored. Getting to touch a spacecraft and see your work blast into orbit every day is a full-circle blessing."

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