Johnny Heflin, liquid engines manager for the Space Launch System at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, leads a team of experts who build the engines that will power NASA’s super heavy-lift Moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS). His team has worked with NASA prime contractor, Aerojet Rocketdyne, to modify and ready 16 RS-25 engines that will power the SLS on the first four Artemis flights. Eighteen more RS-25 engines are under production for flights beyond Artemis four and will help establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon. Heflin believes Marshall is one of the best places for aspiring engineers to work because it touches all aspects of what engineers do in the aerospace business industry, including payloads, microgravity, rocket engines, nuclear propulsion, and more. He is a big believer in the axiom that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.
Image credit: NASA/Sam Lott