NASA's Charlie Blackwell-Thompson on STEM Careers and Shooting for the Stars

We're pretty excited about Charlie Blackwell-Thompson. A spaceflight engineer and veteran of the Space Shuttle era, she's the first female launch director at Kennedy Space Center and the first woman to oversee a NASA liftoff and launch team — specifically, for the Artemis program. Artemis' mission is to land the first woman and the next man on the moon by 2024 and to establish sustainable, ongoing exploration by 2028. Once that's accomplished, NASA will take the next giant leap by sending astronauts to Mars. Artemis, named for Apollo's twin sister, includes the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket — the most powerful ever built — and the Orion spacecraft.

Like Mathnasium, Blackwell-Thompson cares deeply about helping children see a path to future STEM careers, which include science, technology, engineering and math. We were eager to speak with her about her own career journey and to learn how she inspires kids to seek out jobs in STEM. Whether she's counting down to launch or speaking to children in her hometown, it's about exploring infinite possibilities.

Read more here: //blog.mathnasium.com/nasas-charlie-blackwell-thompson-on-stem-careers-and-shooting-for-the-stars