From Langdon to the Moon

Chris Johnson, standing center, poses with members of the Artemis I recovery team aboard a U.S. Navy vessel following the successful splashdown and recovery of the Orion spacecraft in 2022. Johnson served as part of the Air Operations team during the mission. Photo courtesy of NASA

Chris Johnson has spent his career supporting NASA human spaceflight programs, including Orion, Gateway and the Artemis missions. Photo courtesy of NASA

Chris Johnson takes a selfie during the rollout of the Artemis II Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Artemis II is NASA's first crewed mission around the moon since the Apollo era. Submitted photo

This sequence shows deployment of the Forward Bay Cover and parachute system during a NASA Orion capsule test. Engineers conducted extensive testing to verify the parachutes' performance before future crewed missions. Photo courtesy of NASA

At the time of the Artemis II mission, North Dakota native Chris Johnson served as deputy manager of NASA's Gateway HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) module. Johnson is shown standing in front of a mockup of the HALO module, a key component of the Gateway lunar space station. Photo courtesy of NASA

An Orion test capsule is extracted from a C-17 aircraft during parachute system testing at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. After separating from the extraction pallet, the capsule begins its descent sequence under parachute. Photo courtesy of NASA

An Orion test vehicle descends beneath three main parachutes during a development test of NASA's Capsule Parachute Assembly System (CPAS). The parachute system is designed to safely return Orion astronauts to Earth following lunar missions. Photo courtesy of NASA