The NASA Ground Manager Who Counted Down With Her Children

Allison Mjoen is NASA's operations manager for the agency's Exploration Ground Systems Program, and she helped shape its systems and ground operations.

On April 1, 2026, conditions along the Florida Space Coast were clear and bright. Mjoen and her children counted down with the crowd as the rumble of the SLS rocket intensified beneath their feet.

Ground crews rarely get the launch itself on their record. They get everything that had to go right for it to happen.