ILLINOIS – For the very first time, humanity is experiencing the far side of the Moon — a milestone reached Monday in NASA’s historic Artemis II mission.

The crewed Orion spacecraft is pushing new boundaries, made possible by the people supporting the mission from Earth.

Among them is an Illinois woman leading the team that is monitoring the spacecraft’s systems and ensuring its astronauts remain safe. 

What we know:

Jennifer Madsen is playing a key role in the Artemis II mission from the Johnson Space Center in Houston — the heart of NASA’s spaceflight operations.

Inside the Mission Evaluation Room (MER), Madsen and her team serve as Orion’s life-support system — Earthside.

“It was definitely surreal to be here and see the launch, because myself and this whole team have been working for years designing and testing this spacecraft,” said Jennifer Madsen, lead of NASA’s Artemis II Orion Mission Evaluation Room.

During the 10-day mission, engineers are constantly analyzing the spacecraft’s in-flight systems and helping astronauts troubleshoot issues. It’s a job that doesn’t stop — from launch until splashdown.

“In the Mission Control Center, we have the Flight Control Room, where they’re sending communication back and forth with the spacecraft. In this room, our Orion engineers are watching all the data that’s coming from the spacecraft, trending to see if the vehicle is doing what we expect, talking with the Flight Control Team about things we want the spacecraft to do — or if the spacecraft is giving us a signature that we’re not expecting, doing some troubleshooting on that anomaly,” Madsen explained. 

Dig deeper:

Madsen’s story begins in Illinois. She hails from the Quad Cities, where she attended Alleman High School in Rock Island. She then studied aerospace engineering at the University of Illinois before continuing her education in electrical engineering at the University of Houston — a path that prepared her to become the deputy manager for Orion’s Avionics, Power, and Software, and Mission Evaluation Room Lead. 

“They’re going to be taking images, working with the scientists, examining the craters, looking at the different lighting conditions. And so, our team during that time is going to be having our eyes on the spacecraft while the crew has their eyes on the Moon,” Madsen said. 

Just days before liftoff, Madsen visited the Adler Planetarium to discuss her role in the mission and answer questions from future scientists.

She says the most special part of this journey is taking humanity further than they’ve ever gone.

“That human portion of this mission is what’s really interesting, and it’s honestly where I think we’ve been learning the most about the spacecraft, because when we flew Artemis I, we did not have any people on it,” Madsen said. “The words that they’re bringing us, the pictures that they’ll be able to take is why we have this mission and we put humans on this spacecraft.”

What’s next:

Splashdown is scheduled for Friday, April 10. While the exact timing remains flexible, the spacecraft is projected to land in the Pacific Ocean around 7 p.m. Central Time.

You can track the progress of the Artemis II mission throughout its journey on NASA’s website.