Meet Tayera Ellis, Executive Officer for the Gateway Program
Tayera Ellis is doing important work for NASA’s Gateway program, helping launch this new space station into lunar orbit. Ellis is using her role as a steppingstone to achieve a career goal of launching herself into orbit one day — by experiencing unique opportunities like helping to train astronauts and working with systems in space.
As executive officer to the Gateway program, Ellis plays many everyday roles in supporting Gateway’s leadership team, creating new hire training plans, coordinating meeting agendas, and tracking day-to-day actions to advance the Gateway program. She represents Gateway both internally at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, organizing program recognitions and implementing new events, and agencywide by reporting initiatives and actions to NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. She sees her role as an opportunity to be a resource for leadership within the program and execute daily management tasks, such as creating helpful documents and implementing new organizational tools during the development phase of a large human spaceflight program.
Learn more about Tayera Ellis:
Where did you grow up and when/how did you become interested in a career at NASA?
As I have aged, my appetite for understanding the universe has been amplified. Growing up in a rural area of Oklahoma, I constantly looked up at the stars every night and knew that I wanted to contribute to the understanding of the universe. It was because of this that I chose to study aerospace engineering at the University of Oklahoma. My passion for space exploration has dictated my every career decision. NASA is the epitome of space exploration, and I know this is where I can best contribute to humanity’s expansion in the universe.
How long have you been at NASA?
I started as a University Space Research Association (USRA) intern at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, in the summer of 2015. I enjoyed it so much that I took another USRA internship in the fall of 2015 at White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I realized NASA’s Pathways Internship Program was the most direct way to become full time at the agency, so I sent over 100 applications and finally got selected for my first rotation at Johnson in the spring of 2017. I think they were tired of seeing my name. I was converted to full time in November of 2018, and I have been at Johnson ever since.
What has been your favorite memory while working at NASA?
My favorite memory was being able to train astronaut Josh Cassada, who recently launched as part of SpaceX Crew-5, in the Space Station Airlock Test Article Chamber at Johnson. It was an exceptionally special experience because it was my final certification to becoming a human test director. Out of all the tests I had run before, I was my most confident and able to troubleshoot real-time anomalies with minimal support from senior test directors. I would still categorize that as my best test to date.
Editor’s Note: The Space Station Airlock Test Article is a vacuum chamber used to train spacewalkers on how to use the station’s Quest Airlock to go out of the hatch and into the vacuum of space. Cassada is scheduled to perform his first spacewalk on Nov. 15 and put Ellis’ training to the test.
Left: Astronaut Josh Cassada and Tayera Ellis. Credits: NASA/Robert Markowitz. Right: Ellis working as a test director for Space Station Airlock Test Article emergency drills in 2019. Credits: NASA/James Blair
What excites you most about Gateway and its role in Artemis missions?
Gateway is going to be an incredible milestone for humanity — and it is only the beginning of our sustained exploration in deep space. I think it is extremely exciting to watch us improve upon lessons learned from over 20 years in low-Earth orbit and show that we can achieve more with international partnerships. I was not alive when we had our last flight to the Moon, so I am immensely inspired to see humans go beyond low-Earth orbit. I am honored to be part of the renewed enthusiasm for space exploration, and it is exactly what younger-me thought was only ever a dream.
What’s a great piece of advice you would give to someone interested in your role?
It is hard to narrow it down to just one piece of advice. The Gateway program has an incredible culture that is filled with great leadership and high-performing people. I would tell anyone to surround yourself with good people, because you are often a reflection of your environment. Surrounding yourself with the same desires and ambitions will motivate you to achieve more.
What are five words your friends/family would use to describe you?
Determined, passionate, motivated, organized, and persistent.
Final comments?
Last, I will share an inspirational quote most of my colleagues have already seen:
“God put me on this Earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now, I am so far behind that I will never die.” - Bill Watterson
Oh, how I wish this were true. There are so many things I want to do, but there is not enough time to do them all. With Gateway, I am hoping to at least achieve one of those things by becoming an astronaut that will live and work in humanity’s first permanent, deep space infrastructure.
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The Gateway program is an international collaboration to establish humanity’s first space station around the Moon, an essential element of NASA’s Artemis missions. Gateway will host many capabilities for sustained exploration and research in deep space, including docking ports for a variety of visiting spacecraft, space for crew to live and work, and onboard science investigations to study heliophysics, human health, and life sciences, among other areas. Gateway will be a critical platform for developing technology and capabilities to support future Mars exploration.
