Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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For seven hours, Notre Dame alumna Kelsey Young ’09 sat in NASA mission control, listening as astronauts described the moon in real time from a vantage point no human had ever experienced before.

Young is NASA’s first science officer and the lunar science lead for the Artemis II mission. In this episode of Notre Dame Stories, she explains how her role is shaping the future of human space exploration and how human observation became one of the mission’s most valuable scientific tools.

She also reflects on the path that led her to NASA, her Notre Dame education, and what’s next as scientists begin analyzing data from this groundbreaking mission.

Show links

• Listen and subscribe (https://stories.nd.edu/podcast/)
• Watch on YouTube (youtu.be/f7aIlsGGZZw)
• Episode Page (https://stories.nd.edu/podcast/inside-artemis-2-mission-control/)