Since he joined NASA as a contractor supporting the International Space Station in 2017, Caroline Cawthon has played many roles that support real -time operations as a certified flight controller, team lead and leading system engineer.
Caroline Cawthon
CLDP Engineering and Integration Leader
Now, NASA supports the future of America as a system engineering and integration leader for the technical authority of NASA’s commercial low world orbit program engineering. Cawthon supports the program’s chief engineer office. In this position, Phase 1 plays an important role in the supervision of Phase 1 common requirements and processes as part of the program’s two -phase approach to support the development of commercial field stations.
Growing up in military and NASA communities, Cawthon has been fascinated by aviation and aviation from a young age and wanted to be a fighter pilot and engineer. He first met an astronaut as he joined the space camp in the Euro Space Center in Belgium, revealed his interest in space flight, and strengthened his goals to work for NASA, to have an impact and to be a part of making history. Later, he received his undergraduate degree in the field of chemical and material engineering and his master’s degree in aviation and space systems.
Cawthon describes the best part of his day as the people he works with, and his passionate and mission -oriented team reminds him that the mission he works for will make a difference in the future of human space flight.
“There is thousands of years of experience between the program, the engineering team and our industry partners, to learn in my role and to help NASA to perform our mission,” Cawthon said.
A new example of this task -oriented team work was the development of the program’s technical standards design evaluation document. As the leadership of this mission, Cawthon was proud of how everyone would work hard and contribute.
The biggest lesson that Cawthon has learned while working with NASA is to continue to wonder, learn and grow both personally and professionally.
“NASA is one of the biggest networks of the most impressive engineering, science and space program expertise in the world, and it would be a waste not to benefit from this experience in mentoring,” Cawthon said.
Apart from work, Cawthon likes to spend time outdoors with her husband and daughter. He and his family like to be on the road, to explore new places and to meet new people. They enjoy small weekend adventures such as international travel and local zoo and aquarium.
Learn more about NASA’s commercial low world orbit development program:
Commercial space stations
