As a high school student, studying physics in a classroom wasn’t enough for Curtis Szajkovics. So, he and fellow science aficionados designed a giant catapult that won international recognition.
The Gurnee native is now aiming higher as a flight controller with NASA contractor Firefly Aerospace, helping to guide a spacecraft to a moon landing.
The “Blue Ghost” lunar lander launched early Wednesday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services effort.
“It’s a dream of mine I’ve had since a kid to do something in space,” Szajkovics said in an interview last week.
The spacecraft is carrying 10 NASA science investigations that will increase understanding of the moon’s environment in preparation for future human travel there.
They include “looking for things like dust mitigation, how landing affects your environment and what the surface of the moon is actually made of,” Szajkovics explained.
As a kid crazy about science, “you get to a point where you think we know everything,” he said.
“And then you go to a place like the moon, and you start asking simple questions and realize we know very little.”
Growing up in Lake County, he attended Woodland Elementary and Woodland Middle schools, and Warren Township High School.
“I always wanted to be an astronaut,” said Szajkovics, whose early influences include “Star Wars” and “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.”
The Blue Ghost lunar lander is scheduled to launch early Wednesday on a mission to the moon.
As a system engineer at Austin-based Firefly Aerospace, Szajkovics’ job in creating Blue Ghost was “to talk to every single person on the program, making sure they’re on task and building what we need.”
As a flight controller, “I’m responsible for all communication and sending of commands to the spacecraft.”
The entire mission should last 60 days, with about 45 of them spent in orbit around the Earth and moon.
“That whole time we’re working with (NASA) payload teams to make sure they’re ready for the big moment when we land,” he said. “(That’s) when a lot of their science can finally happen.”
Gurnee native Curtis Szajkovics is a flight controller with Firefly Aerospace, which is launching its Blue Ghost lunar lander early Wednesday on a mission to the moon.
Firefly Aerospace staff work on the Blue Ghost lunar lander, which is expected to launch early Wednesday on a mission to the moon.
How difficult is sticking the moon landing?
“I wouldn’t say difficult, I would say exciting,” Szajkovics said. “We’ve practiced, we’ve done lots of research, we’ve done analysis, we’ve done projections. So we’re very prepared … but when it comes to space — there’s always surprises.”
Attached to Blue Ghost is a nameplate listing the entire Firefly team, which could potentially remain for “millions of years,” Szajkovics said.
“My name is going to be on the moon, which is just crazy to think about.”
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