Kansas native, a K-State grad, part of NASA team for Artemis II moon mission
Erik Stalcup, a native of Wellington, Kansas, and graduate of Kansas State University, is part of NASA’s historic moon mission.
The Artemis II mission is scheduled to launch at 5:24 p.m. Central on Wednesday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The four-member crew — three Americans and one Canadian — will take a 10-day trip around the moon and return to Earth aboard the Orion spacecraft, the first crewed mission into deep space in more than 50 years.
NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, where Stalcup works as an engineer, introduced him as one of the people who have “played a critical role in @NASAArtemis” in an Instagram post in January.
“Erik Stalcup manages the passive thermal control subsystem for the European Service Module, Orion’s powerhouse,” NASA wrote.
In laymen’s terms, the Wellington Daily News has explained, Stalcup and his team “make sure that nothing gets too hot or too cold on the Orion spacecraft.”
The newspaper reported in February that Stalcup would be at Cape Canaveral to witness the launch. Once the rocket reaches orbit, he will go to Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he and dozens of engineers will work 24/7 in rotating shifts monitoring the mission during its 10-day journey.
“It’s a fast-paced environment with all of the experts in one room,” Stalcup told his hometown newspaper. “It’s stressful, but fun.”
Stalcup graduated with a physics degree from K-State in 2010 and a master’s in aerospace engineering from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland in 2015, according to the nonprofit Ad Astra Kansas Foundation which promotes space science and education in Kansas.
“We are so proud to see talent from Kansas making its mark on space exploration,” the foundation wrote in a post Wednesday.
Stalcup’s hometown of about 7,700 residents south of Wichita will be watching the launch and celebrating later.
It plans a hot dog lunch at the Wellington Regent Theatre from 12:30 to 2:45 p.m. Friday that will showcase NASA-themed goodies supplied by Stalcup — enamel pins, launch sheets and fold-up 3D Artemis models.
Aubrey Roths, a Wellington Middle School science teacher, will lead a STEM activity. The launch also will be replayed with a live Mission Control status briefing at 2:30 p.m.
The launch window for the mission opens at 5:24 p.m. Wednesday. Should there be delays, the launch can be moved to a later time until 7:24 p.m.
If it doesn’t happen Wednesday, the next chance for launch begins at 6:22 p.m. Thursday.
NASA will provide all-day coverage, from preparation to launch. Livestreams will be available on NASA’s YouTube channel, Amazon Prime and NASA+, the agency’s free streaming service.
This story was originally published April 1, 2026 at 2:45 PM.
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