Washington (EFE).- NASA’s Artemis program, which seeks the return of man to the Moon, appointed Colombian engineer Lili Villarreal as the person in charge of recovering the capsule in the sea on its return to planet Earth, reported this Wednesday the US federal agency.
NASA appointed Villarreal, 48 years old and born in Cartagena, as the new director of landing and recovery of spacecraft in the Artemis II program.
The expert explained that in her new position she is “responsible for the safety of the crew, and is also responsible for the safety of all the people who help recover the crew.”
Villarreal, who has been fascinated by space exploration since she was little, stressed that when she was offered the position she thought very well about it because “it is an exciting and rewarding task, but it comes with significant responsibility.”
Last December, the unmanned Artemis I mission ended successfully, with the return of the Orion spacecraft, after 25 days of space travel and circumnavigation of the Moon.
On Artemis II four astronauts will fly around the Moon in a NASA test of human capabilities for deep space exploration.
It will be the first time that the Orion rocket and capsule will make such a journey with a human crew.
From a family visit to the mission to the Moon
According to a NASA statement, Villarreal visited the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at age 7 with her family where she is now program director.
“I didn’t know what space was until I came to the visitor center, and we saw up close all the rockets on display, and the space suits that went to the moon,” he recounted. “I couldn’t believe that we, humanity, had achieved that.”
“I told myself that’s what I want to do,” added Villarreal, who later graduated with a science degree and a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
The Colombian later worked at the Boeing firm in Seattle (Washington), and returned to Florida to work for NASA as a Boeing contractor.
Villarreal, who lives with her husband and son in Melbourne, Florida, was deputy mission manager on the Artemis I mission, responsible for the integration, assembly, and testing of the Orion rocket and capsule before engineers took the assembly to the launch ramp. launch.
Artemis II will last about 10 days and will pave the way for other missions on the lunar surface, including the first to land a woman and a person of color on the moon.
