Darren Bruner ’13 Helps Power Historic Lunar Mission

Darren Bruner '13 was one of a handful of Kentuckians with ties to the Artemis II mission, which marked the first crewed flight to orbit the moon in more than 50 years.

Darren spent nearly four years at Lockheed Martin’s Colorado campus working closely with fellow engineers in Orion’s Integrated Test Lab to ensure that all hardware and software aboard the spacecraft were safe and effective. He helped integrate the Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS), ensuring the crew’s water, waste, and atmospheric management functioned properly. He also contributed to the design of the user interface for the crew’s displays, which were used to control and pilot the spacecraft.

Darren studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Louisville before earning a master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder. He interned at both NASA and Lockheed Martin before accepting a full-time position with the company in 2019.

More recently, Darren has been responsible for mechanical integration, requirements management, and launch operations for both the GOES-R and GeoXO satellite programs — a joint effort between NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to develop technologies that study Earth’s atmosphere, predict hazardous weather, monitor solar emissions and space weather, and help locate people in distress using advanced search-and-rescue technology.

He and his wife plan to move from Denver to Fort Worth this summer, where Darren will begin his next role as a Systems Engineer supporting the F-35 fighter jet, with Lockheed Martin operations based in the Dallas–Fort Worth area.