Megan Harvey is the head of utilization flights and capsule correspondent (or Capcom) at the Research Integration Office of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. She integrates scientific payload constraints related to the launch and landing schedules of vehicles. She is also working to coordinate logistics to get SpaceX vehicles back to the West Coast landing site.

Keep reading to learn about Harvey’s career with NASA and more!

Where did you come from?

I'm from Long Valley, New Jersey.

How do you describe your job to family or friends who may not be familiar with NASA? 

Many biological experiments conducted at the space station have specific time constraints, including preparations on the ground and when crew members interact with them in orbit. I coordinate and communicate these restrictions in the International Space Station Program and the scientific community. This is especially important because the release date is rarely left where it was originally planned! I am currently working on a cross-programming team, coordinating logistics to return to the West Coast landing of SpaceX vehicles.

As Capcom, I am a position at Houston Mission Control Center and talk to the crew. That was when I responded to someone saying, “Houston, we have a problem!”

I've been working on the integration office since early 2024 and I really like the speed change after 11 years at FAS, where I have provided several different consoles for the ISS. I've kept Capcom certification since 2021, and it's definitely a dream come true every time I sit in the flight control room of the International Space Station. The Johnson Space Center is home to the best teams on and off the planet!

How long have you worked for NASA? 

I have worked at the institution for 13 years.

What advice would you give to young people who are eager to work in the space industry or at NASA? 

Some of the things I found to help me great are:

1. Practice: I was surprised over and over again how to simply practice things to make you better at them, but it works!

2. Prepare: Don’t put things in the wings!

3. Curiosity: Keep asking questions!

4. enthusiasm!

What is your path to NASA? 

I have a track path to NASA. Since I went to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama when I was 10, I wanted to be Capcom for NASA and work at NASA. I also traveled to Russia in high school and loved it. I think it would be great to coordinate between Russia and the U.S. space program. To pursue these dreams, I received my bachelor’s degree in physics from Kennyon College in Gambill, Ohio, but I was so happy to take extracurricular classes in music that my grades didn’t quite meet the standards of NASA jobs. After graduation, I worked in a technical camp for a summer and then obtained a research assistant position in the Neuroscience Laboratory at Princeton University in New Jersey.

About a year later, I realized that independent research was not for me. Then I worked in retail for a year and then moved to California to become a lecturer at Astrocamp for the year-round outdoor education camp. I taught many science classes, including astronomy, and had the opportunity to see Mars rovers put together at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. I should start working on graduate courses related to aviation. After three years at Embry-riddle in Daytona Beach, Florida, I earned a Master of Science in Engineering Physics and a job offer in flight control locations, starting with a subcontractor at United Space Alliance. I started mission control as an Attitude and Control Officer in 2012 and kept that certification until the end of 2023. Along the way, I was a lecturer in the motion control group. The Houston Support Group regularly works in Moscow with Russian systems experts and operations leaders; Remote Interface Officer (RIO); and supports Capcom and Vehicle Integrator teams in the multi-function support room and system engineers’ multi-function support room. When I think about how to make my childhood dream come true, I have to pinch myself.

Is the space, aviation or science industry motivated or inspired the people you work for space programs? Or someone you found while working at NASA? 

After I switched my office to the Houston Support Group/Rio, most of my training was led by Sergey Sverdlin. He is a real character. Despite his rudeness, he got along well with me. We are very different people, but we do respect each other. I always impressed him and sought his approval.

What is your favorite NASA memory? 

My most influential experience with NASA was working with the incremental 68 clues in the days and months after the Soyuz coolant leak. I am the leading leader in Rio de Janeiro, and happened to be at the incremental management center on the day of the planned Russian spacewalk. The increment of RIO is not mainly based on the incremental management center, but that day, things were not going well. All of our Russian colleagues have no access to the critical network and I am troubleshooting with the Supercharger Manager and the Chair of the ISS Mission Management Team.

I'm explaining to Dina Contella, the International Space Station's deputy program manager, that the program is to see scattered scatters in our Downlink video on the office wall to get our colleagues to visit their colleagues. Those flakes are coolant. Incredibly, watching Dina call from the end of the day and call and said, "I'll call you." The Incremental Management Center filled it and didn't leave until midnight that day approached me. The rest of December is the strong and meaningful work of the sharpest, most meaningful people I have ever known (no puns).

What do you like to share the station? What are the benefits of attracting the general audience to help them understand life on Earth? 

There is so much to talk about! I like to have a deeper understanding of the complexity of the space station system itself, but also the international collaboration of all the teams designed to keep the system and operate scientifically.

If you could have dinner with astronauts from past or present, who would it be? 

I'll have dinner with Mae Jemison or Sally Ride. It's hard to choose!

Do you have your favorite spatially related memories or moments that stand out for you? 

A few years ago, my management was selected by my management staff to visit the Navy aircraft carrier with SpaceX Crew-1 Crew and some of the heads of the Crew-1 team. We landed a trap on the deck and were driven home via the C-2 Greyhound plane. This is really a boast! I was also lucky that I saw the last shuttle launched from Florida while in graduate school.

What key projects did you work on during your time at NASA? What do you like the most? 

My first incremental lead role was Rio de Janeiro's incremental 59, a major effort to update all of our products in the event of deprivation of the space station. Working with the entire incremental team in this work is eye-opening. I really enjoyed all the work, learning, and being able to better understand my peer incremental clues, including flight director Royce Renfrew.

Also, in 2021, I was appointed as the Integration Systems Engineer (ISE) Lead at Nanorack Airlock. I have never worked on a project with so many stakeholders before. I coordinated with the entire flight control team in nearly 100 revisions of the initial activation and checkout flowchart. It was cool to see the air lock extracted from NASA's SpaceX Dragon Trunk and installed, but it was pale compared to the shift when we did our first Airlock garbage deployment. I support ISE, Chief Rio and Capcom, sitting next to Chief Flight Director TJ Creamer. I counted down the Robot Operations Systems official who deployed the deployment in the S/G cycle so that the crew and flight control team could hear "3, 2, 1, participate!"

I will never forget to spend all the complexity and success with that great team while also having a lot of fun satisfaction.

What are the hobbies/things you love outside of work? 

I love cycling, rock climbing, cooking, board games and singing.

Launched in one day or night?

Release at night!

Favorite space movie?

Space Camp. Too stupid. This is the first DVD I have ever bought!

NASA "worm" or "meatball" logo?

worm

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