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Ted Michalek: Engineering from Apollo to Artemis


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From the first lunar footsteps of Apollo to the threshold of humanity’s return aboard the Artemis missions, Ted Michalek has been part of the fabric of Goddard for 55 years — and counting!

Name: Theodore “Ted” Michalek
Title: Chief technical engineer (retired), now consultant
Formal Job Classification: Thermal engineer
Organization: Thermal Engineering Branch (Code 545), Mechanical Division (Code 540) and Systems Review Office, Flight Assurance Directorate (Code 301)

Black and white image of a man sitting on a wooden bench wearing a hat, vest, and plaid short sleeve shirt.
Theodore “Ted” Michalek is a consultant thermal engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. After 40 years at Goddard, he retired in 2009, but returned part-time as a contractor consultant.
Courtesy of Ted Michalek

What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard?

I’ve been a thermal engineer at Goddard since May 1970, over 50 years. I’m currently a consultant to the lead thermal engineer for the Roman Space Telescope mission. I am also part of a team reviewing the Compact Coronagraph Instrument (CCOR-2) which will fly on the Space Weather Follow On (SWFO) mission. The thermal engineering discipline involves and affects all of the hardware and systems on all spaceflight hardware, and is involved from “cradle to grave,” from conception to the end of every mission.

What is your educational background?

I went to the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, a Baltimore City public high school with an engineering preparatory curriculum. In 1969, I earned a B.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland.

How did you become a thermal engineer?

From the time I was 2, I was always fascinated by things that flew, especially airplanes. I originally wanted to be a pilot, but my mother found that I was partially color blind so I could not become a pilot. I decided to become an aeronautical engineer instead. In college, I did not enjoy the aerodynamics courses, so I gravitated to the structural design of flight systems. It was the Apollo era and I was fascinated by the space program, and was fortunate to get a job at Goddard in a mechanical design group. After a year, I was transferred to the thermal design group which, at that time, had a critical shortage of engineers.

How did you come to Goddard?

Though a job fair and interviews, I came to Goddard in June 1969 about one month before the first moon landing, Apollo 11.

Why have you stayed at Goddard for over 50 years?

I’ve stayed at Goddard because it’s a really good place to work and the work is interesting. I was on the front line of thermal engineering for spacecraft design. Although I retired in 2009, I returned as a contractor consultant. After 40 years, I only wanted to work part time, but have enjoyed keeping my hand in the field, continuing to contribute, and working with the people.

What is most challenging about being a consultant to the lead thermal engineer for the Roman Space Telescope?

Roman is a challenging mission thermally since much of the instrument and optical portions of the observatory need to be maintained at temperatures well below room temperature. Not as cold as the James Webb Space Telescope, but still a challenge.  I had been doing reviews for Roman when it started, and eventually became part of their team. The lead thermal engineer is a very good guy whom I helped mentor when he first arrived in the thermal branch about 15 years ago. Thankfully I gave him good technical advice years ago, and am glad to be helping him out again. I’m proud that he has been so successful.

What is your role in reviewing the CCOR-2 instrument?

The systems review office at Goddard has a program of periodic reviews of every big project several times during their development phase from inception to launch. Every project has a committee of technical experts from various branches who are usually senior engineers who act as independent reviewers. The project presents to this review committee, discipline by discipline. There are success criteria for each periodic review. Each review has a pass-fail grade with details of what went into the grade, specific recommendations and advisories which are less binding than the formal recommendations. If there is really a problem, which is rare, they might get a lien, a restriction against proceeding beyond a certain point until a specific problem has been corrected.

What are your career highlights?

I’ve had many. One was being part of a small group of technical experts at Goddard who served as consultants to Argentina’s space agency, CONAE, when it was first formed and when they were designing their first orbiting satellite in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I went to Argentina a few times, and to Brazil twice for thermal testing. Another was being lead thermal engineer for the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) that was launched from a space shuttle. I also worked quite a bit on the WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) design, test and launch effort, and I also had the opportunity to work on the big Webb telescope test done in Houston before launch. I traveled to Houston for 10 days, every month, for five months to support that test, including right after Hurricane Harvey.

Do you know that your nickname is the Thermal Engineer Guru?

I may have heard that before. It’s OK, though the original thermal guru for me was Robert Kidwell, the assistant branch head when I joined the thermal branch, and was my first mentor there. A large part of the later part of my career included informal mentoring and reviews. I was responsible, as the chief technical engineer, for the technical output of my branch, so I spent a lot of my time talking with the engineers in the thermal branch, especially when they were involved in difficult technical situations. I worked with them to help make decisions. The job also included conducting periodic engineering peer reviews.

One of the engineers I worked with quite a bit said that they were the ones firing the cannon and I was especially good at aiming the cannon. That made me feel good.

Black and white image of a man operating a camera on a tripod wearing safety glasses, a jacket, pants, and a hat.
“Take advantage of the culture at Goddard to learn your job as well as you can, which will enable you to take on more responsibility in time and contribute as much as you can to these missions,” said Ted Michalek. “I’ve always been appreciative and excited about how all of Goddard’s missions contribute to our knowledge of the universe and the quality of our life on Earth.”
Courtesy of Ted Michalek

What changes have you seen in Goddard over the years?

The one big change is how the complexity of the missions has evolved. Our missions have gotten more sophisticated in technology and science. The size and complexity of our missions has increased. Thermal engineers work with almost every other disciplinary area including the scientists because everyone’s equipment has different thermal requirements.

I don’t think the culture of Goddard has changed that much. Goddard has always been a group of very smart and dedicated people who are devoted to the missions that they are working. Goddard generally has a very collegial and collaborative atmosphere. Over the years, the coordination of the different technical and science disciplines has improved, I’d say primarily because of the evolution of the systems engineering function which is a key part of every project, and has been for some time now. We also document more thoroughly now than we did when I started.

In 1970, when three of us entered the thermal branch, the first thing the branch did was have the assistant branch head conduct a three month training class. He was a pioneer in the field of thermal design for spacecraft, the real thermal guru. Over the years, the thermal branch has continued this kind of training class for incoming engineers.

I came to work at Goddard 10 years after Goddard was created. When Goddard opened, there was a need to develop a workforce that knew how to build and launch spacecraft. Among other things, we had a number of people who came from the U.S. Naval Research Lab, or NRL, one of whom was the assistant branch head who taught us. Most of these people had worked on the Vanguard Project, which resulted in the launch of the second U.S. satellite to orbit the Earth.

I came to Goddard about 12 years after the field of thermal engineering for space flight was started. I was there for the continuing maturation of this field. Because our missions are so much more complex, the field keeps evolving. Computer modeling is an important part of the field and that has gone through a huge evolution since I was a young thermal engineer, including collaboration with the structural analysts to predict in-orbit deformations, which is a key on many missions these days, including Roman. Also, the thermal hardware we have to utilize has evolved, necessarily, to answer the demands of ever more complex science missions.

My first year at Goddard, we were doing vibration testing on a spacecraft model. I remember clearly thinking, as I was trying to position the instrumentation, that Goddard has been doing this for 10 years, and wondered if I’d ever do something new and different. Little did I know how much more evolution would go on from then until now.  Every mission is different and requires creative ways to meet ever more demanding requirements.

What do you do for fun?

I have been a semi-serious bird watcher for the last 35 years. About three years ago, I was introduced to several aspects that rekindled my interest. One is a free app for my cellphones called Merlin, developed by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, which helps identify birds. Another is a free app called eBird, also developed by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, which allows you to list the birds that you have seen on an outing and report it to Cornell’s worldwide data base. Now I feel like when I am going birding, I can easily keep track of the birds I have seen and at the same time help contribute to bird studies.

I also recently became involved in watching hawks in particular. There is a network of people and organizations from Canada to the northern part of South America who, during the fall and spring migration seasons, have expert observers in carefully chosen locations. The data from these sites goes into a database that’s been kept and analyzed for almost five decades now. These observers are charged with counting every migrating hawk they can see, daily, for two to three months. These people are fantastic in how they can do this tough job, in the outdoors, sometimes on a platform, from 7 a.m. until 4 or 5 p.m. every day, seven days a week, for two to three months at a time. Some are paid professionals. Depending on the location, day and weather, these hawk watches can count anything from zero migrant hawks to, in the Panama Canal Zone, 300,000 hawks. That’s in one day at the peak of the season. I really have a lot of respect for these hawk watchers.

A man standing on a large rock overlooking a valley. The man is visible from behind looking through binoculars. A tripod is in front of him.
Ted Michalek on a birding trip in May 2024 at Bradbury Mountain Hawkwatch area, at the summit, about 5 miles NW of Freeport, ME.
Courtesy of Ted Michalek

On a birding trip in May 2024, I visited two of these hawkwatch sites, one at Bradbury Mountain State Park in Maine, and the other at Braddock Bay State Park in New York. In addition to getting some great practice at hawk identification, I learned first-hand the influence that weather, including wind direction, has in the daily flights, and how well the official hawk counters know the hawks and where to look for them based on the conditions, and how they can tell migrants (which they report) from local birds (which they don’t). It’s amazing how they’re able to quickly, at a glance sometimes, identify a hawk at a distance of several miles. At Braddock Bay, I was fortunate to be there on a couple of days when they had daily counts of more than 1,000 migrant hawks, and can attest first hand to the skill and focus necessary to identify and count that many birds. It was a good trip: in addition to visiting family, I saw 16 species of birds on this trip that I’d not seen before, including my first golden eagle, called to my attention by the professionals at Braddock Bay.

What lessons or words of wisdom would you pass along to somebody just starting their career at Goddard?

Take advantage of the culture at Goddard to learn your job as well as you can, which will enable you to take on more responsibility in time and contribute as much as you can to these missions. I’ve always been appreciative and excited about how all of Goddard’s missions contribute to our knowledge of the universe and the quality of our life on Earth. 

Who do you want to thank?

I want to thank my family, my wife especially. And also my parents who provided me with a nurturing and secure upbringing, and an education.  My wife and I homeschooled our two children through high school. I helped in the evening, but she did the bulk of the work. My wife has always been very supportive of my career. We met at Goddard. In the early ’70s, I taught a beginners’ class for the Goddard karate club and she was a student of mine. She offered me a correction for one of the exercises I had them do, and I listened and corrected it. My sister, our children and grandchildren, and the rest of my family have always been supportive of and interested in my career as NASA. I’m thankful to have such a wonderful extended family.

From my early years at the thermal branch, I would also like to thank Ed Powers, who transferred me into the thermal branch and became the assistant director of engineering before he retired. Ed recently made a presentation about the early history of the thermal branch in the 1960s. I’m helping him a bit with his presentation. I would also like to thank Norm Ackerman, who was also a thermal branch head. Both of them were my supervisors and also two of many excellent mentors and leaders I worked with at Goddard.

By Elizabeth M. Jarrell
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

A banner graphic with a group of people smiling and the text "Conversations with Goddard" on the right. The people represent many genders, ethnicities, and ages, and all pose in front of a soft blue background image of space and stars.

Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.

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Jun 04, 2024
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      K-Rad Cube – The Korea Aerospace Administration will use a dosimeter made of material designed to mimic human tissue to measure space radiation and assess biological effects at various altitudes across the Van Allen radiation belt.
      Space Weather CubeSat – The Saudi Space Agency will measure aspects of space weather, including radiation, solar X-rays, solar energetic particles, and magnetic fields, at a range of distances from Earth.
      TACHELES – The Germany Space Agency DLR will collect measurements on the effects of the space environment on electrical components to inform technologies for lunar vehicles.
      Together, these research areas will inform plans for future missions within NASA’s Artemis campaign. Through Artemis, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
      View the full article
    • By NASA
      4 Min Read NASA Uses Colorado Mountains for Simulated Artemis Moon Landing Course
      NASA has certified a new lander flight training course using helicopters, marking a key milestone in crew training for Artemis missions to the Moon. Through Artemis, NASA explore the lunar South Pole, paving the way for human exploration farther into the solar system, including Mars. 
      The mountains in northern Colorado offer similar visual illusions and flight environments to the Moon. NASA partnered with the Colorado Army National Guard at the High-Altitude Army National Guard Aviation Training Site near Gypsum, Colorado, to develop the foundational flight training course.
      “Artemis astronauts who will land on the Moon will need to master crew coordination and communication with one another,” said Paul Felker, acting deputy director of flight operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “Much like they will on the Moon, astronaut teams are learning how to work together efficiently in a stressful environment to identify hazards, overcome degraded visual environments, and evaluate risks to successfully land.”
      During the two-week certification run in late August, NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Matthew Dominick participated in flight and landing training to help certify the course. The pair took turns flying a helicopter and navigating to landing zones. Artemis flight crew trainers, mission control leads, and lunar lander operational experts from NASA Johnson joined them on each helicopter flight to assess the instruction, training environment, and technical applications for crewed lunar missions.
      NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick (left) and Mark Vande Hei (right) prepare to fly out to a landing zone in the Rocky Mountains as part of the certification run for the NASA Artemis course at the High-Altitude Army National Guard Aviation Training Site in Gypsum, Colorado, Aug. 26. NASA/Michael DeMocker A LUH-72 Lakota helicopter stirs up dust at the High-Altitude Army National Guard Aviation Training Site in Gypsum, Colorado, Aug. 28. NASA/Charles Beason A member of the Colorado Army National Guard peers out of a CH-47 Chinook in preparation for landing Aug. 22. NASA and trained instructors from the Army National Guard use a range of aircraft during flight training. Chinooks are used to demonstrate challenges with landing on the Moon. NASA/Charles Beason NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick (left) and Mark Vande Hei (right) celebrate after returning from a training flight Aug. 26 during a certification run for a lander flight training course for crewed Artemis missions. NASA/Michael DeMocker Paired with trained instructors with the Army National Guard, astronauts fly to mountaintops and valleys in a range of aircraft, including LUH-72 Lakotas, CH-47 Chinooks, and UH-60 Black Hawks. NASA/Charles Beason NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei lands a helicopter as part of flight and landing training at the High Altitude Army National Guard Aviation Training Site Aug. 28. NASA/Michael DeMocker A member of the Colorado Army National Guard looks out of a CH-47 Chinook as it lands at a steep angle Aug. 29. A crater on the Moon could have a similar incline, posing landing challenges for future crewed Artemis missions. NASA/Michael DeMocker A LUH-72 Lakota helicopter flies over the mountains of northern Colorado Aug. 28 during a certification run for a lander flight training course for crewed Artemis missions. The mountains and valleys in Colorado have similar visual illusions to the Moon. NASA/Michael DeMocker The patch for the High-Altitude Army National Guard Aviation Training Site is pictured in the cupola of the International Space Station in 2023. NASA and the Colorado Army National Guard began working together in 2021 to develop a foundational lunar lander simulated flight training course for Artemis. NASA The NASA astronauts and trained instructor pilots with the Army National Guard flew to progressively more challenging landing zones throughout the course, navigating the mountainous terrain, and working together to quickly and efficiently land the aircraft. 
      Teams can train year-round using the course. Depending on the season, the snowy or dusty conditions can cause visual obstruction. Lunar dust can cause similar visual impairment during future crewed missions.
      “Here in Colorado, we have specifically flown to dusty areas, so we know and understand just how important dust becomes during the final descent phase,” Vande Hei said. “Dust will interact with the lander thrusters on the Moon. During our flight training, we have had to revert to our instruments – just like we would on the Moon – because astronauts may lose all their visual cues when they’re near the surface.” 
      During Artemis III, four astronauts inside the agency’s Orion spacecraft on top of the SLS (Space Launch System rocket) will launch to meet SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System in lunar orbit. Orion will then dock with the Starship system and two astronauts will board the lander. Astronauts will use the Starship lander to safely transport themselves from lunar orbit to the lunar surface. Following surface operations, the two astronauts will use Starship to launch from the lunar surface, back to lunar orbit, and dock with Orion to safely journey back to Earth.
      The NASA-focused course has been in development since 2021. Vande Hei and Dominick are the 24th and 25th NASA astronauts to participate in and evaluate the course based on functionality and Artemis mission needs. One ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut has also participated in the course.
      “This course will likely be one of the first group flight training opportunities for the Artemis III crew,” said NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock, who helped to develop the foundational training course for the agency. “While the astronauts will also participate in ground and simulation training in Ohio and Texas, the real-world flight environment in Colorado at offers astronauts an amazing simulation of the problem solving and decision making needed to control and maneuver a lunar lander across an equally dynamic landscape.”
      Though the course is now certified for Artemis, teams will continue to evaluate the training based on astronaut and technical feedback to ensure mission success and crew safety.
      Through the Artemis campaign, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars for the benefit of all. 
      For more information about Artemis visit: 
      https://www.nasa.gov/artemis
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      Last Updated Sep 10, 2025 EditorBeth RidgewayContactCorinne M. Beckingercorinne.m.beckinger@nasa.govLocationMarshall Space Flight Center Related Terms
      Human Landing System Program Artemis Artemis 3 Humans in Space Marshall Space Flight Center Explore More
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    • By NASA
      The Artemis I SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft is pictured in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida before rollout to launch pad 39B, in March 2022.Credit: NASA/Frank Michaux Media are invited to see NASA’s fully assembled Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft in mid-October before its crewed test flight around the Moon next year.  
      The event at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida will showcase hardware for the Artemis II lunar mission, which will test capabilities needed for deep space exploration. NASA and industry subject matter experts will be available for interviews.
      Attendance is open to U.S. citizens and international media. Media accreditation deadlines are as follows:
      International media without U.S. citizenship must apply by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 22. U.S. media and U.S. citizens representing international media organizations must apply by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 29. Media wishing to take part in person must apply for credentials at:
      https://media.ksc.nasa.gov
      Credentialed media will receive a confirmation email upon approval, along with additional information about the specific date for the mid-October activities when they are determined. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. For questions about accreditation, please email: ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov. For other questions, please contact the NASA Kennedy newsroom at: 321-867-2468.
      Prior to the media event, the Orion spacecraft will transition from the Launch Abort System Facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA Kennedy, where it will be placed on top of the SLS rocket. The fully stacked rocket will then undergo complete integrated testing and final hardware closeouts ahead of rolling the rocket to Launch Pad 39B for launch. During this effort, technicians will conduct end-to-end communications checkouts, and the crew will practice day of launch procedures during their countdown demonstration test.
      Artemis II will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen on an approximately 10-day journey around the Moon and back. As part of a Golden Age of innovation and exploration, Artemis will pave the way for new U.S.-crewed missions on the lunar surface ahead in preparation toward the first crewed mission to Mars.

      To learn more about the Artemis II mission, visit:
      https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii
      -end-
      Rachel Kraft / Lauren Low
      Headquarters, Washington
      202-358-1100
      rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov / lauren.e.low@nasa.gov  
      Tiffany Fairley
      Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
      321-867-2468
      tiffany.l.fairley@nasa.gov
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      Last Updated Sep 10, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
      Artemis 2 Artemis Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Space Launch System (SLS) View the full article
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