NASA's Allison Mjoen Reflects on Artemis Launch, 20-Year Career

NASA announced that Allison Mjoen serves as the agency's operations manager for the Exploration Ground Systems program. She helped shape the systems and ground operations that will send humans back to the Moon. Mjoen has spent a 20-year career at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

She supported missions across the Space Shuttle Program, the International Space Station, and now Artemis. Mjoen began her career as a flight crew systems engineer with United Space Alliance supporting the Space Shuttle Program. Her team handled mission-specific cabin configurations, including food, spacesuits, cargo, and payloads.

After the Space Shuttle Program retired, she supported the International Space Station Program as a payload integration engineer. She connected experiment investigators with organizations developing their hardware. She later worked in the Project Office on the Test and Operations Support Contract before joining NASA's Operations Project Engineering Office.

Mjoen served as the Spacecraft Payloads Integration and Evolution Element lead for Artemis I. She first supported integrated firing room operations as a certified operations project engineer during Artemis I. Earning the certification was a milestone. Applying it during real time operations brought a new level of responsibility.

She said every decision and communication directly supported the integrated team's ability to execute safely and properly implement the test procedure. Working at the integration console highlighted the importance of preparation, collaboration and trust.

Mjoen witnessed the SLS rocket launch on April 1, 2026 along the Florida Space Coast. She watched with her children as they counted down with the crowd. The agency said this moment offered a pause for reflection on the work that led her there.