Centre grad helping send Americans back into deep space

When Artemis II lifted off on Wednesday, April 1, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, among those keenly watching the rocket soar into space was Jimmy Skaggs ’01, who has spent the last 20 years helping humans return to the moon.

Skaggs serves as  Spacecraft Flow Manager for Lockheed Martin, the lead contractor for the design, development, testing and production of the Orion spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis missions.

“I tell everyone I meet that I have the greatest job in the solar system,” he said. “It’s already the best job on the planet. We’re tasked with sending humans to deep space and returning them home safely. That’s pretty impactful to think about.”

With the launch of Artemis II, Skaggs took his place in the history of space exploration as American astronauts venture to the moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

Contributing to the next evolution of American space exploration wasn’t on Skaggs’ mind when he enrolled at Centre from Paintsville High School. In fact, he arrived in Danville dreaming of another high-profile career path.

“The movie ‘Jerry Maguire’ had just come out, and I was going to go to law school and become a sports agent,” he said. “I went to Centre because it was by far the most renowned, prestigious and best school in the state. And that's what I was looking for.”  

But chance intervened in those career plans

As Skaggs prepared to enjoy the summer after his graduation, a phone call from a cousin who worked at Kennedy Space Center changed the entire trajectory of his life.

“I was going to go home and just have this fun summer, but he said, ‘Why don’t you come down here and work instead?’” Skaggs recalled.

So the 21-year-old Government major from Centre College made the drive to Florida and put his skills to use in the U.S. space program, picking up some pointers from his cousin, Greg Daniel, along the way.

“He helped me learn what it takes to be successful in this business, which doesn’t mean you need to be the smartest person in the room,” Skaggs said. “But maybe the best listener in the room.”

When working with literal rocket scientists every day, the ability to understand complex issues, zero in on logical next steps in the problem-solving process and communicate with a wide array of coworkers has been crucial.

“It’s not that I took computational fluid dynamics in college or anything, but I can listen to people, pick up things, and understand what some of the challenges are for people and help them solve some problems,” he said.

NASA introduced the Artemis moon exploration program in 2017, the latest evolution of the U.S. space program that kicked off with Project Mercury first sending Americans to space in 1961. The Gemini Program was highlighted by the first American to walk in space in 1965 and the Apollo Program brought us the moon landing in 1969. The space shuttle program saw 355 people go to space across 30 years and 135 missions, culminating with the completion of the International Space Station.

As the shuttle program began to wind down, Skaggs left United Space Alliance in 2006 to join Lockheed Martin where he spent two years as a software planner on the U.S. Navy's Fleet Ballistic Missile Program. But his sights were still set on the stars.

“I was now at Lockheed Martin,” he said. “And Lockheed Martin had just won the Orion contract to build the Orion spacecraft.”

Skaggs saw an opportunity to move back into space exploration in 2008 when a position opened on the Orion project that he said was right up his alley — with one caveat.

“It was an engineering planning position and, of course, not having an engineering degree, you’re a little disadvantaged by that,” he laughed. “But to tie it back to my Centre experience, one cool thing is you don’t have to be the smartest person in every room you walk into. But if you can get the two smartest people in the room together … and serve as a facilitator and get them to understand each other’s perspective … that’s where I was adding value in those days.”

Skaggs found that while he might not have the technical training to develop all the complex equations needed to solve the problems his coworkers encountered, but he did have a knack for helping coworkers collaborate to chart the best path forward.

“A lot of those skills I developed in my many classes at Centre,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re applying those skills to something that’s directly in your field of study or trying to solve a complex stress crack in a pressure vessel that needs to hold oxygen while it goes out into space, it’s the same kind of issue,” he laughed. “It comes back to communication and selling your point and being able to get people to understand each other.”  

As astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, make history by journeying farther into space than any humans before, Skaggs is already hard at work on the program’s next horizon, with equipment for what will be Artemis III, IV and V under construction in his building.

It’s the realization of a dream that began the summer after his Centre graduation and fully took shape when President George W. Bush announced the goal of returning to the surface of the moon.

“I knew when I was watching that press conference in 2004 that would be my career,” Skaggs said. “That’s where I’m going to be someday.”