NASA Artemis Panel

From Illinois to the Moon: Building NASA’s Orion Spacecraft

When: Wednesday, March 25
Time: 7:00 pm–8:00 pm | Theater doors open at 6:30 pm
Where: Johnson Family Star Theater

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Join us at the Adler as we welcome home Illinois native, Jennifer Madsen, one of the leaders of NASA Artemis mission’s Orion Spacecraft for a once-in-a-lifetime discussion.

Jennifer Madsen, Deputy Manager of the Avionics, Power, and Software Office for NASA’s Orion Program, will share her journey from her hometown in Illinois to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Madsen will discuss her role working on the agency’s Orion spacecraft, which will fly astronauts around the Moon on Artemis II—NASA’s first crewed mission of the Artemis campaign to return humans to lunar exploration.

Moderated by Dr. Mike Zevin, astrophysicist at the Adler Planetarium.

How To Get Tickets

To attend this event, tickets must be reserved online, in advance of your visit. Your event reservation ticket includes Museum Entry with access to all exhibitions.

If you would like to see one of our award-winning sky shows during your visit, sky show tickets can be purchased at the box office when you arrive at the Museum or outside one of the theaters on the day of your visit, subject to availability.

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Meet Jennifer Madsen

Jennifer Madsen currently serves as deputy manager of the Orion Avionics, Power, and Software (APS) Office for NASA’s Orion Program at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. In this role, she assists in the design, development, test, verification, and certification of avionics, power, and software systems onboard Orion, NASA’s next generation human-rated spacecraft for Artemis missions. Madsen also serves as a lead of the Orion Mission Evaluation Room (MER) that will provide real-time engineering support during Artemis II flight operations.

Previously, Madsen served as deputy chief of Johnson’s Project Management and Systems Engineering Division, providing oversight for large cross-center projects, implementing processes and standards for the Engineering Directorate. She also served as the Orion avionics and software test systems manager, leading the execution of integration and verification testing of Artemis hardware and software. Madsen earned her B.S. Aerospace Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, an M.S. Electrical Engineering from the University of Houston, and her PhD. Electrical Engineering from the University of Houston. Learn more about Jennifer Madsen here.