Behind the Scenes of Artemis II with a Georgia Southern Graduate

The astronauts had just made their final speeches. As they began to head to the crew transport that would take them to the Artemis II spacecraft, cryogenic propulsion software engineer Auston Netcher (‘21) put on his headset and settled into his workstation in the control room at Cape Canaveral, Florida. 

The past few days in the Amentum engineering office had been busy. He and his team spent more than two years building the software programs that would control the combustion process and send Artemis II into space for its 10-day journey. Now, it was time to see if all that work would pay off.

“We test constantly to make sure everything is working properly,” he explained. “But on launch day, the energy in the firing room is intense. There’s no more trial and error.”   

Netcher’s eyes scanned the three large screens at his station as he did a final check to ensure everything was running smoothly. 

“We meet the astronauts before they go up,” Netcher said. “These people’s lives were literally in our hands. So I had to make sure that everything on my end was running perfectly.” 

The ground began to shake. The whole building rattled as the thrusters shot to life and the rocket began its gradual ascent. As cheers filled the air, Netcher sat back in disbelief, shocked that a hiring event at a hotel in Florida had brought him to the Artemis II launchpad. 

“My first job out of college was designing and building solar fields,” said Netcher, who received his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Georgia Southern University. “But then the company went through a massive round of layoffs. So I started applying to hundreds of jobs. My mom saw a posting about a career fair and pushed me to go to it.” 

He knew he’d made the right decision to attend when he met the man who would soon become his manager. 

“He didn’t care about my last job,” said Netcher. “He just said, ‘tell me about some of the stuff you worked on in college.’” 

Georgia Southern gave him plenty to talk about. 

“We talked about my experiences with 3D modeling, things like SolidWorks and AutoCAD,” he said. “His eyes lit up when we were talking about my senior project, and he said, ‘This is him. This is who we need.’” 

Three years later, Netcher was walking back from the firing room to his car at 4 a.m. after the 18-hour shift. He opened his car door and looked through the twilight of the early morning dawn towards the sky ahead. 

Artemis II was hurtling around the Earth at 17,500 miles per hour. He thought about the four people aboard. They were carrying the hopes and dreams of a new generation, excited about space travel. His work helped put them there. 

“I only ever expected to work a desk job at some firm,” he said. “But I’m not done learning about myself. I think my time at Georgia Southern taught me how to be flexible and adapt. That’s what brought me here, and it’s more than paid off.”

— Bradley Mullis