I Am Artemis: Anton Kiriwas

When Anton Kiriwas first spotted an image of the Moon and Mars hanging over a job fair booth while in college, it captured his imagination, yet felt like a dream too distant to chase. He had no way of knowing that years later he would play a critical role in NASA’s Artemis missions, helping launch humans back to the Moon for the first time in more than half a century. Kiriwas’ journey to NASA began during the Space Shuttle Program, while he was working for United Launch Alliance, the same organization behind the memorable Moon and Mars booth that he passed by in college. Not long after, he joined NASA as a civil servant, designing electrical systems that set him on a path toward his current role with Exploration Ground Systems as senior technical integration manager. In simpler terms, Kiriwas is a problem solver. My official title is way too long – what I do is pretty simple: I solve problems for the ground systems. Our goal is to process, launch, and recover the spacecraft. There are a lot of ground systems that are used to go do that and a lot of people involved. A big part of my job is to go solve all the problems that come. Anton Kiriwas Senior Technical Integration Manager, Exploration Ground Systems Program A core part of Kiriwas’s role is to serve as a launch project engineer. Strategically positioned at the integration console in the center of Firing Room 1 of the Launch Control Center at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, he acts as a bridge for the test management and engineering teams. Kiriwas, along with the other launch project engineers, reports directly to the launch director, making the final technical recommendation on any issues that may arise during launch countdown. From this seat, he works across all engin