Florida Engineer of Distinction: NASA’s Teresa Kinney

Deep Space Logistics engineering chief eyes gateway to the moon and Mars

By Joe VanHoose, Managing Editor

NASA’s Artemis campaign has the agency once again looking toward the moon for scientific discovery, technology advancement and, ultimately, to learn how to live on another world in preparation for human missions to Mars.

The first Artemis mission – an uncrewed flight test of the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft around the moon – was successfully completed in late 2022. Artemis II, scheduled for late 2025, will be the first crewed flight test of the spacecraft.

For NASA engineer Teresa Kinney, the focus has already shifted to Artemis IV and V, which will send astronauts to live and work in humanity’s first lunar space station, Gateway. The Orion module will dock with Gateway, and from there the astronauts will transfer into the lunar landing module.

The Gateway space station hosts the Orion spacecraft and SpaceX's deep space logistics spacecraft in a polar orbit around the Moon, supporting scientific discovery on the lunar surface during the Artemis IV mission. Image provided by NASA.

Kinney is the chief engineer for NASA’s Gateway Deep Space Logistics (DSL) Project office at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The first female chief engineer at Kennedy, Kinney is the technical authority for the group, responsible for evaluations and recommendations to the DSL management and the Gateway program, ensuring safe and reliable delivery of needed equipment, commodities and payloads to the moon-orbiting station.

“We are the way you get cargo, commodities to the Gateway, which will basically be a lunar space station,” she said. “You have to be able to get things up and back. There will be some visiting vehicles but they may be bringing people.

“So we’re bringing all the other stuff.”

An Early Passion

As a child, Kinney was drawn to equipment and technical matters and wanted to know how everything from her bike to her parents’ car worked. Her interests sharpened toward space as NASA’s Apollo missions aimed for the moon in the 1960s.

Her dad was in the military, and the family was living in Germany during Apollo 11.

“It seems like it was late at night, and we got to stay up and watch the first steps on the moon,” Kinney remembered. “It was so exciting to me.”

Her interest grew back in the U.S. as her family’s vacations would take them to Florida and to Kennedy Space Center.

By the time NASA started the Space Shuttle program, she knew she wanted to work on that. She earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Alabama in Huntsville as a way to be close to NASA opportunities at nearby Marshall Space Flight Center.

“I got my degrees so I could work on that,” Kinney said. “Working on shuttle payloads was a great way to get going.”

A Career Of Growth

Kinney began her career as a NASA contractor in Huntsville, Ala., in 1984, supporting the agency’s Space Shuttle solid rocket booster, Spacelab and International Space Station (ISS) programs.

A golden sunrise surrounds NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft for Artemis I on the pad at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 22, 2022. The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I provided a foundation for human deep space exploration and demonstrated NASA's commitment and capability to extend human presence to the Moon and beyond. Photo by Ben Smegelsky for NASA.

The work within the different programs provided Kinney with massive challenges, which she embraced. The different groups also gave her different perspectives to consider in her work.

“I got a lot more passionate about looking at things from different perspectives to make sure we didn’t accept something we didn’t understand well,” she said.

Kinney moved to Florida in 2005 and worked as a dynamicist for NASA’s Launch Services Program. She became an assistant chief engineer for the agency’s Ares I-X Ground Systems and supported NASA’s Space Transportation System chief engineer in resolving technical hardware and analysis issues.

Prior to her work with the DSL program, she was the Integrated Performance lead engineer on the Commercial Crew Program for more than a decade. She led evaluations of integrated vehicle flight analyses, testing and certification, as well as any resolution of technical issues related to rocket and spacecraft systems, including during abort and landing phases of flight.

Three years ago, the chief engineer on the DSL team turned to Kinney for detail support. To Kinney, the assignment sounded like another nice challenge and something new to study. When that engineer was promoted, Kinney served as acting replacement for two years and was formally selected as chief engineer in 2023.

Pushing For Diversity Of Thought

How do you manage a team of engineering rock stars as they help design the details that may get NASA to the moon and Mars?

“You do the work a little step at a time,” Kinney said. “It’s about looking at lofty goals ahead and determining what we can take away from what we’ve learned working on different projects. It’s taking those baby steps and a lot of back and forth to make sure we’re not missing anything, which is my favorite part.

“We’re all looking out for each other to see how we can all be successful.”

The Moon is seen rising above NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard at Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Artemis I flight test was the first integrated test of the agency’s deep space exploration systems: the Orion spacecraft, SLS rocket, and supporting ground systems. Photo by Bill Ingalls for NASA.

Kinney uses her vast experience working on different programs with different groups to help move the DSL team along. She maintains a culture where everyone feels able to bring what ideas they have to the table.

“What I try to do is leverage the best of what people are doing and make sure they are thinking about what they may not have thought about,” she said. “I hopefully can help people take a step back and consider how we can improve things, what we need to be doing, and how we can do better.”

The thing about considerations, Kinney says, is that everyone carries their own on their backs. Kinney’s considerations have formed from what she has learned over her career, which are different from others on her team who came up in different programs and projects. The resulting cross pollination is what drives innovation forward.

“One of my chief engineer mentors says that none of us are as dumb as all of us. I love that statement and I think about it all the time,” she said. “The last thing you want is a bunch of people to all agree, because you may not be thinking things through. By encouraging diversity, you will have people thinking things through a lot more comprehensively.”

Advice to New, Aspiring Engineers

As Kinney sees her industry, now is the best time over her 40-year career to get involved in engineering.

“There are more programs, more startup companies, more efforts going on now than I have ever seen,” she said. “There are all these different avenues, and technology is moving so fast. This is a great time to be an engineer, and there are a lot of options out there.”

For young and aspiring engineers, Kinney recommends engineering conferences, which are often cheap or free to attend for students and are a great way to make connections and learn more about opportunities within the field. Taking internships or co-ops is invaluable, even if the opportunities are outside someone’s bubble.

Taking different opportunities may uncover a hidden passion, she said.

“Just knowing how things work and what you’re passionate about, sometimes that takes some on-the-job time,” Kinney said. “Don’t be afraid to try something new. I’ve always found I grow so much and learn so much when I try something new.”