Life at the KSC & Artemis II

A little over a year ago I got hired at KSC. The commute is rough, so I honestly wasn’t sure how long I’d stick it out. My plan was to give it a year and then look for something closer to home.

The drive still isn’t great, but I’m still here because even on the slower days, it’s just an exciting place to work. At this point I’m trying to hang on as long as I can, because I haven’t found another job quite like it.

Some of my highlights over the last year

• I've seen dozens of rocket launches up close
• I got to view Artemis II in the VAB twice. The first time I something like 33 floors up to where they have the flag under the ESM.
• I got to take my kids on a tour of the KSC and Space Force
• I saw both of the Artemis II rollouts
• I got my family onsite for the Artemis II launch
• I've been all over LCC and the firing rooms

 My first day of work

 First day of work. It was windy and my hair was in the awkward stage because I had just started growing it out. Needless to say, I look like a bird.

Walking through the VAB lot one day and they had this out. It's a mockup of Orion.

Not nearly as exciting as your imagination could make it. Just a weight to test the cranes.

Just another day at work

This one was from 39A, as close as it gets from LCC.

Sometimes I like to take a walk around OSB II.

A Falcon 9 fairing on the move.

From my office. A Falcon 9 getting ready to launch. 

Assembling the ML2, outside the VAB, before the project was scrapped.

 

My VAB Tour in 2025.

 

 

 

 526 feet up

 

 

Artemis II behind me. They let us take our phones on this side. When we went on the other side we had to turn in our phones so we don't kill someone with FOD.

 

August 1

  

August 11

 

Sept 5th

 

Sept 25th

This is a ULA rocket. I believe this was the Atlas 5. ULA launches are nice to watch because they are solid rocket boosters, so they have a much dirtier plume vs the Falcons.

 

We got to sign the Artemis II banner. My name is in the top of the A.

A foggy day at the VAB.

October 29th

This was part of the new Starship pad they were moving. A lot of people came out to see a big box get moved, because it's huge.

Another Falcon 9 fairing

Night launch

Universal Night - November 9th

They had a KSC Universal Night in November. They let us go in the park I think around 5 or 6, closed it for the public shortly after, then we had the park to ourselves until midnight. I didn't run into a single coworker the entire night. At first the lines were short but when we got ot Hagrid we wasted over an hour and a half in line. 

 Here we are pregaming since they gave us food cards.

After Jurassic Park we had to use the dryers. Never done this before but I didn't want to have wet pants all night.

A huge waste of money on butter beer but we had the food cards so we had money to waste.

Dean's first time on Hagrid. He loved it.

12-04

Artemis II Viewing

This is part of the core for Artemis III.

 

It's now fully stacked.

Under the ML.

Dec 09

Just another Falcon

 

Artemis 1st Rollout

 The first rollout was an early morning one. The only light up the VAB with the Artemis Logo when the vehicle is leaving the building.

Getting ready to leave the building.

At this point it barely moves. I had to zoom in with my camera and then I can see the tracks slowly move every once in a while. It takes about an hour to get it out of the building.

This is another slow moving part. Once out of the building it takes about 45 minutes for them to do a bunch of test, like swinging out the arm. After this things move a lot faster.

Videos from the first rollout.

 

Having this beast pass us was a trip. With the clouds moving by it almost made me dizzy.

By this point it really seemed like the crawler was hauling ass to the pad.

39b Visit

A week or two later I got to see Artemis II at the pad. That's the banner that I signed.

There's the crawler right outside the pad.

 

 

Second rollout

They had a successful wet dress but shortly after they found a leak in ICPS and had to bring it back to the pad. The second rollout was a night. When I brought my family to the first rollout I got watch from turn basin but without them I could watch it from LCC. The rollout was delayed because of wind and my drive home sucks so I ended up sleeping a couple hours on my office floor that night instead of going home.

  

 

VAB, LCC, and SLS.

The next morning, almost to the pad.

Another foggy morning at the VAB.

A couple months ago I got to meet Jared Issacman. I really believe this guy is saving NASA and Artemis. A very necessary shakeup has occurred.

Crawler parked back in front of the VAB.

A couple months ago I watch the movie A Million Miles Away with the family. Before every mission they have the family of the crew draw on these white boards that they have hanging all around LCC. They showed the one from that mission in the movie. I went looking for it a week later and found it along with the whiteboard from the last Colombia mission.

Another Falcon 9 fairing on the move

I got this view for a couple weeks before launch.

Falcon 9 Sunset launch 02-26-2026

This was a cool launch because of the lighting. This was in between the first and second Artemis rollout.
 

Artemis II launch

This was an amazing day. April fools day 2026. There were a lot of jokes going around and even at work some people we not so optimistic we would launch on our first attempt. Remember, we did not attempt before we moved it back to the VAB a month earlier. That was only a wet dress.

 I was one of the optimistic people but even still I was shocked when we were good to launch. We had a couple issues. The first was that something on the launch abort couldn't communicate with the range. Someone knew we had an old part, I think at Space Force and they replaced it with that and moved on. We had no fueling issues, which was a little surprising. Around 10 minutes we had a brief hold and then they had to discuss an anomaly before Charlie said we were good to launch.

We watched Artemis I 3 years ago but this was different. We were onsite, we could hear everything over the loudspeakers, and it was personal this time. I work for the crew, I've run into them on site. If something goes wrong it's a lot different now. 

When the countdown hit 10 seconds it's an oh shit moment. It's really happening. Then a plume of smoke and a perfect launch. It's something I'll never forget.

The media really messed up on the launch. A lot of people were saying my S26 video was better. At least with mine the screen doesn't go black and no one was questioning if it was real.

A while after the launch the plume of smoke moved over the VAB.

Bring kids to work day

In April we had bring your kids to work day. Unfortunately, I work in a restricted area so I couldn't bring them in there. Fortunately they opened up a lot of stuff at Space Force for the kids to see.

There's a guy that has a Lambo so Dean had to get a picture in front of it.

From OSB II

The hatch from Colombia.

At the Space Force hangar, I think Hangar C.

This is at the museum at Space Force. This is one of the bunkers they used to launch from. It's crazy that they used to launch from 100-200 yards away in a bunker.

If it fits, it ships.

How many kids get to climb in an old flame diverter? This is at LC9, or LC10.

The beehive bunker at LC31.

This is the New Glenn pad before the accident.

Falcon Heavy

 Recently we had a Falcon Heavy launch. This is 3 Falcon 9's strapped together and they launch it from 39A which is the closest pad to LCC. It was really cool to watch. Two of the three boosters returned to the pads. I didn't know they would be returning them to two pads a mile or two apart though so I messed up my video on the return. Due to meetings and having to do actual work, I didn't get the best view in the stairwell, so maybe next time. They will be using another Falcon Heavy for the Nancy Grace telescope coming up.

 

Watching it punch through the clouds was really cool.

The launch

The return

Gaylord Palms

We had a comet party at the Gaylord Palms in April. Left the kids at home and had a night without them.

 

Bringing the ML back. I think this was last month.

Artemis III Core Delivery

A month ago they delivered the core for Artemis III. Here it is going from the barge to the VAB.

 

Just stuck in traffic while they move another fairing

Two launches in a day. I thought this was cool just because it's a new chapter in Space. We had a Falcon 9 go up in the morning and a ULA Atlas V that evening.

Here's the Falcon

Here's the Atlas V that evening.

 

This was a Falcon 9 launch as I was driving in. The clouds were blocking it and it takes a while to get some speed and get away from that pad I thought they had an accident for a second there when the clouds all turned orange.

Right before turning the corner onto state route 3 I saw the coolest space jellyfish. I wasn't able to get a good picture or video though. After I turned the corner my car's dashcam picked this up. I missed the best part of it.

On May 28th they were doing a New Glenn hot fire on the pad. I didn't know about it until I got home and I get text messages with these pictures. New Glenn blew up on the pad.