Katie Spicer leads NASA integration for Blue Moon Mark 2

NASA said in an announcement published Thursday 12 November 2026 that Katie Spicer serves as the agency's lander integration lead for Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 2 lander.

Blue Origin is developing a streamlined lander test article for NASA's Artemis III rendezvous and docking mission in low Earth orbit. The company is also developing a fully functional lander for a crewed lunar landing in 2028.

Spicer works in NASA's Flight Operations Directorate at Johnson Space Center in Houston, where she evaluates and monitors the lander's design and development. She works with NASA and Blue Origin counterparts to ensure the design supports Artemis mission objectives.

Spicer said she reviews everything Artemis crews will touch, work with or interface with. Her work includes checking crew access to handles and handrails, operation of push-button displays in microgravity, hygiene systems and procedures for safe and effective use.

Spicer spent several years as a full-time homemaker and raising three children before starting at NASA part-time in its historic Life Sciences Laboratory. She later worked with science payloads and the Human Research Facility racks in the International Space Station National Laboratory.

Spicer became a flight controller at NASA's Mission Control Center in 2018 and studied and trained for five years to earn instructor and flight controller certifications. She said NASA will send Artemis astronauts on increasingly difficult missions near the lunar South Pole and establish an enduring human presence on the lunar surface.