For generations of scientists, engineers, and other NASA personnel, including many who were not yet alive in 1969, the Apollo Moon landing was a watershed moment—the first steppingstone of space exploration. So in 2017, when the agency announced that after 45 years the Artemis program would finally return humans to the lunar surface, many people working at NASA were elated.

“We were finally doing what everyone wanted to do,” says Liliana Villarreal, AE 96, MS AE 97, who had helped process payloads for shuttle delivery to the International Space Station before being tapped as director of the Artemis II landing and recovery at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. “Our team has always been thinking of going farther. That’s our driving ambition, our human instinct for exploration.”

Read the full story on the Georgia Tech Alumni Association's website.