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In the Starlight: Jason Phillips’ Unexpected Path to Johnson Procurement
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By Space Force
The Space Force releases the Space Warfighting framework, outlining the service's vision for achieving and maintaining space superiority while ensuring the long-term safety and sustainability of the space domain.
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By Space Force
The Space Force released the Space Warfighting framework, outlining the service's vision for achieving and maintaining space superiority while ensuring the long-term safety and sustainability of the space domain.
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By NASA
Exploring the unknown and preparing for humanity’s next giant leap really works up an appetite. Thankfully, employees at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston can count on Tina Preyan to help them fuel up and stay focused.
Preyan is a food service specialist at Starport, a quality-of-life program that contributes to Johnson’s mission by providing employee services and activities that enhance work life and promote mental well-being and physical fitness. Part of the agency’s network of 12 NASA Exchanges — each located at a NASA center or facility — Starport offers everything from group fitness classes to retail shopping, with programs designed to engage, energize, and support the workforce.
Tina Preyan supports a NASA Exchange display at a Johnson Space Center event. Image courtesy of Tina Preyan Preyan oversees the on-site dining options at Johnson, from its cafés and food trucks to vending machines and mini markets. She helps set the budget for food services, creates monthly calendars of food offerings, schedules vendors and pop-up events, and ensures annual food safety inspections are conducted. She also works with teams across Johnson to order food and related supplies for NASA events.
“The best part of my job is working in customer service, meeting new NASA workers every day, and making everyone feel welcome and at home when coming to Johnson’s cafés,” she said.
Preyan has been a fixture at Johnson for the last 19 years. She previously worked at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans but transferred to Houston shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit the city in 2005. At Starport, she worked her way up from prep cook to lead cashier and then to lead assistant. She also served as the office’s administrative assistant before transitioning to her current role.
Tina Preyan poses for a photo with NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Victor Glover. Image courtesy of Tina Preyan Preyan has enjoyed meeting many NASA astronauts and Johnson team members and learning more about the work they do. The occasional celebrity sighting is another job perk.
Preyan is something of a celebrity herself. “So many employees know my name. I am proud of meeting so many people, and the love they give me every day just being here,” she said.
She was also proud to receive Starport’s Jackie Kingery Award in fall 2024. The award recognizes extraordinary customer service and exemplary dedication to the NASA Exchange mission at Johnson. “It felt amazing to receive this award and know that I am doing a great job in everyone’s eyes,” she said. “I value high integrity and am always willing to help others in the organization.”
Tina Preyan receives Starport’s Jackie Kingery Award from Starport Deputy Operations Manager Sam Miller in October 2024. Image courtesy of Tina Preyan Another source of pride for Preyan? Her son, Cameron, who is set to graduate from the University of Texas at San Antonio in May with a degree in Finance and Marketing.
In addition to her son’s graduation, Preyan looks forward to continuing her work in a positive environment and pursuing more growth opportunities.
“I’m going to stay busy and stay focused on ensuring proper procedures are being used by vendors,” she said. “And making sure all customers are happy and will continue to return to cafés.”
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By Space Force
The DoD is offering a path back to service for military personnel who voluntarily separated or left to avoid the COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
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By NASA
As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, managed out of Johnson Space Center in Houston, is paving the way for conducting lunar science for the benefit of humanity.
Through CLPS, NASA teams worked closely with commercial companies to develop a new model for space exploration, enabling a sustainable return to the Moon. These commercial missions deliver NASA science and technology to the lunar surface, providing insights into the environment and demonstrating new technologies that will support future astronauts—on the Moon and, eventually, on Mars.
Carrying a suite of NASA science and technology, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 successfully landed at 3:34 a.m. EST on Sunday, March 2, 2025, near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium, a more than 300-mile-wide basin located in the northeast quadrant of the Moon’s near side.Firefly Aerospace Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 captured an image March 6, 2025, after landing in a crater from the Moon’s South Pole. The lunar lander is on its side about 820 feet from the intended landing site, Mons Mouton. In the center of the image between the two lander legs is the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1 suite, which shows the drill deployed.Credit: Intuitive Machines 2025: A Year of Lunar Firsts
This year has already seen historic milestones. Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 successfully delivered 10 science and technology instruments to the Moon on March 2, 2025. It touched down near a volcanic feature called Mons Latreille within Mare Crisium, a basin over 300 miles wide in the northeast quadrant of the Moon’s near side. Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 Mission, landed near the Moon’s South Pole on March 6, marking the southernmost lunar landing ever achieved.
The lunar deliveries for NASA have collected valuable insights and data to inform the next giant leap in humanity’s return to the Moon, helping scientists address challenges like lunar dust mitigation, resource utilization, and radiation tolerance.
Meet the Johnson employees contributing to lunar innovations that are helping to shape the future of human presence on the Moon.
Mark Dillard: Pioneering Payload Integration
Official NASA portrait of CLPS Payload Integration Manager Mark Dillard. NASA/James Blair Mark Dillard, Blue Ghost Mission 1 payload integration manager, has been at the forefront of space exploration for more than 40 years, including 28 years with the International Space Station Program. Beyond ensuring all NASA payloads are integrated onto the lunar landers, he oversees schedules, costs, and technical oversight while fostering strong partnerships with CLPS vendors and NASA science teams.
“I believe NASA is about to enter its next Golden Age,” said Dillard. “The enthusiasm of Firefly’s engineering team is contagious, and it has been a privilege to witness their success.”
Dillard’s career includes five years as NASA’s resident manager in Torino, Italy, where he oversaw the development of International Space Station modules, including three logistics modules, the European Space Agency’s Columbus module, and two space station nodes.
Mark Dillard in the clean room with Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 lander behind him. “Like Apollo, Shuttle, and the International Space Station Programs, Artemis will add the next building block for space exploration,” said Dillard. “The CLPS initiative is a significant building block, aiming to establish reliable and long-term access to the lunar surface.”
Susan Lederer: Guiding Science in Real Time
Official portrait of CLPS Project Scientist Susan Lederer.NASA/Bill Stafford Susan Lederer, IM-2 project scientist, has spent years ensuring all the NASA instruments are fully prepared for lunar operations. She oversees real-time science operations from IM’s Nova Control Center, working to maximize the mission’s scientific return and prepare for the next generation of astronauts to explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
“We have done our best with remote data, but the only way to truly understand the Moon—how to drill for resources, how to live on another celestial body—is to go there and do the experiments,” she said. “Now, we get to do that.”
Lederer’s path to CLPS was shaped by a background in space exploration, astrophysics, and planetary science. She has contributed to multiple spacecraft missions, including NASA’s Deep Impact mission, which sent a projectile into Comet Tempel 1, and a separate mission that retrieved a sample from asteroid Itokawa.
On Ascension Island, a remote joint U.S. Air Force and Royal Air Force base, she co-led the construction of a 20,000-pound optical telescope to study space debris. Her work spans collaborations with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a tenure as a physics professor, and the design of impact experiments at NASA’s Experimental Impact Lab, where she used a vertical gun firing projectiles at speeds exceeding those of sniper rifles to study asteroid and comet collisions.
Lederer has logged hundreds of hours conducting observing runs at professional observatories worldwide, where she refined both her scientific precision and her ability to repair instruments while working alone on remote mountaintops.
As a private pilot and SciComm (the science equivalent of Capsule Communicator) for NASA’s Desert Research and Technology Studies, she honed her mission communication skills. She was also part of an international team that discovered two extrasolar planetary systems—one with a single Earth-sized planet and another with seven—orbiting ultracool red dwarf stars.
Her expertise has uniquely prepared her to oversee real-time science operations for lunar missions in high-intensity environments.
NASA and Intuitive Machines IM-1 lunar lander mission status press briefing. From left to right: Steve Altemus, Intuitive Machines’ chief executive officer and co-founder; Dr. Joel Kearns, NASA’s deputy associate administrator, Exploration, Science Mission Directorate; Dr. Tim Crain, Intuitive Machines’ chief technology officer and co-founder; and CLPS Project Scientist Susan Lederer. NASA/Robert Markowitz Lederer emphasizes the importance of both scientific discovery and the practical realities of living and working on another world—a challenge NASA is tackling for the first time in history.
“Honestly, it’s when things don’t go as planned that you learn the most,” she said. “I’m looking forward to the surprises that we get to solve together as a team. That’s our greatest strength—the knowledge and teamwork that make this all happen.”
Lederer credits the success of CLPS lunar deliveries to the dedication of teams working on payloads like Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 and Lunar Retroreflector Array, as well as peers within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Space Technology Mission Directorate, and Intuitive Machines.
“What we do every day in CLPS creates a new world for exploration that is efficient in schedule, cost, and gaining science and technology knowledge in these areas like we’ve never done before,” said Lederer. “It feels very much like being a trailblazer for inspiring future generations of explorers – at least that’s my hope, to keep the next generation inspired and engaged in the wonders of our universe.”
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