We sat down with NASA's Launch Director, Charlie Blackwell Thompson, who won the 2023 Distinguished Award of Merit. The Award of Merit is ACEC’s highest award. It is bestowed on an individual for exemplary achievement in the field of engineering, pure or applied natural science, or an educator in one or more of these fields, either American or foreign. Previous recipients have included oceanographer and discoverer of the Titanic Robert Ballard and astronaut Neil Armstrong.

Charlie Blackwell-Thompson is NASA’s first female Launch Director and leads the launch operations for NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems and Orion’s first test flight, called Artemis I. Artemis is NASA’s robotic and human Moon exploration program and the first step in the next era of human exploration, establishing a sustainable presence on the Moon to prepare for missions to Mars.