Former Diamond Dawg leads NASA in big swing toward long-term exploration
Ramsey returned to the mound at Dudy Noble to throw the ceremonial first pitch before the Bulldogs took on LSU in April.
Former Diamond Dawg Matthew Ramsey wrapped NASA’s latest mission in Maroon and White as mission manager for Artemis II—the first crewed mission since 1972. The 10-day expedition from Earth around the moon marked a major step toward returning humans to the lunar surface, setting the stage for long-term exploration.
A native of Hernando, Ramsey enrolled at Mississippi State in the early 1990s as a pitcher for MSU baseball while earning 1992 bachelor’s and 1993 master’s degrees in aerospace engineering. He began his work with NASA in 2002.
He said in one of the agency’s website stories, “There are a lot of similarities between mission management and pitching. You control many aspects of the tempo, and there’s a lot of weight on your shoulders.”
On this history-making mission, that responsibility included pre-launch daily preparations, addressing issues as deputy of the Artemis II management team, and resolving any flight changes.
One of his NASA interview comments about his immeasurable duties was, “Most of my time is focused on making sure we’re ready to fly astronauts Reid, Victor, Christina and Jeremy to the moon and bring them home safely.”
Joining Ramsey in the success of Artemis II is Parker Glass, who works for NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems and oversaw budget development, project plans and resource allocation in preparation for launch.
Glass was exposed to NASA and space exploration during most of his childhood in Yorktown, Virginia, where his dad worked at Langley Research Center for many years. Glass became enamored with becoming an astronaut, but as he got older his interests changed.
Parker Glass, part of NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems team for the Artemis II mission, celebrates its successful and historic journey around the moon.
He discovered the prestigious PGA Golf Management program at Mississippi State, one of just 16 in the nation. He said in a NASA article, “I first visited MSU in 2014 and fell in love with Starkville.”
After eventually changing his major to finance, he was surprised to discover there were internship opportunities with NASA and that brought him back to his original passion.
Glass wants students interested in NASA and the agency’s work to know that being an astronaut doesn’t have to factor into the equation of working in space exploration. “NASA needs everybody,” he said.
He graduated from MSU in 2018 with a bachelor’s in business administration and earned an MBA in 2022.
By Harriet Laird, Photo by Hallie Walker & Submitted