{"id":197146,"date":"2025-04-08T06:22:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T20:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/?p=845779"},"modified":"2025-04-08T06:22:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T20:22:00","slug":"caroline-cawthon-supporting-americas-future-in-low-earth-orbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=197146","title":{"rendered":"Caroline Cawthon: Supporting America\u2019s Future in Low Earth Orbit\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since joining NASA in 2017 as a contractor supporting the International Space Station, Caroline Cawthon has held many roles supporting real-time operations as a certified flight controller, team lead, and lead systems engineer.  <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"A<\/a><\/figure>
\n
Caroline Cawthon\u2019s official NASA portrait.<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\t <\/path><\/path><\/g><\/svg>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n
\n
\n

NASA is one of the biggest most impressive networks of engineering, science, and space program expertise in the world and to not leverage that experience in mentorship would be a waste.<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
\n
\"Caroline<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Caroline Cawthon<\/p>\n

CLDP Engineering and Integration Lead <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Now, she is supporting America\u2019s future in orbit as the systems engineering and integration lead for NASA\u2019s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program engineering technical authority. Cawthon supports the program\u2019s chief engineer office. In this position, she plays a key role in the oversight of phase 1 partner requirements and processes as part of the program\u2019s two-phase approach to support the development of commercial space stations. <\/p>\n

Growing up in military and NASA communities, Cawthon was fascinated with aviation and aerospace from a young age and aspired to become a fighter pilot and engineer. She first met an astronaut while attending Space Camp at the Euro Space Center in Belgium, sparking her interest in human spaceflight and solidifying her goals to work for NASA, make an impact, and be a part of making history. She later earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in chemical and materials engineering and her master\u2019s degree in aeronautics and space systems. <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"A<\/a><\/figure>
\n
Cawthon attending Space Camp as a child at the Euro Space Center in Belgium. <\/div>\n
Image courtesy of Caroline Cawthon<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Cawthon describes the best part of her day as the people she works with, and her passionate and mission-driven team reminds her that the mission she\u2019s working toward will make a difference in the future of human spaceflight.<\/p>\n

“Between the program, engineering team, and our industry partners, there are thousands of years of experience with human spaceflight that I get to leverage every day to learn and grow in my role and to help NASA accomplish our mission,\u201d shared Cawthon. <\/p>\n

A recent example of this mission-driven teamwork was the development of the program\u2019s technical standards design evaluation document. As the lead for this task, Cawthon was proud of how everyone\u2019s hard work and contributions came together. <\/p>\n

The biggest lesson Cawthon has learned while working with NASA is to continue being curious, learning, and growing both personally and professionally.  <\/p>\n

\u201cNASA is one of the biggest most impressive networks of engineering, science, and space program expertise in the world and to not leverage that experience in mentorship would be a waste,\u201d Cawthon said. <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Two<\/a><\/figure>
\n
Cawthon pictured with her husband and daughter. <\/div>\n
Image courtesy of Caroline Cawthon<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Outside of work, Cawthon enjoys spending time outdoors with her husband and daughter. She and her family also like to be on the road, exploring new places and meeting new people. They enjoy international travel and small weekend adventures like the local zoo and aquarium. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Learn more about NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program at:<\/p>\n

Commercial Space Stations<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since joining NASA in 2017 as a contractor supporting the International Space Station, Caroline Cawthon has held many roles supporting real-time operations as a certified flight controller, team lead, and lead systems engineer.\u00a0\u00a0 Now, she is supporting America\u2019s future in orbit as the systems engineering and integration lead for NASA\u2019s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16109,15606,15634,15662],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commercial-space","category-general","category-johnson-space-center","category-people-of-johnson"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=197146"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197482,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197146\/revisions\/197482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=197146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=197146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=197146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}