From the Mission Management Middle to neighborhood celebrations, Kenneth Attocknie blends security experience with a dedication to cultural connection. 

For the previous 25 years at NASA, Attocknie has devoted his profession to safeguarding the Worldwide Area Station and supporting real-time mission operations at Johnson Area Middle in Houston.  

As a principal security engineer within the Security and Mission Assurance Directorate, Attocknie ensures the secure operation of the area station’s environmental management and life help system. This method is important for sustaining the life-sustaining setting aboard the orbiting laboratory— a crucial basis for related techniques deliberate for future Artemis missions. 

As a contractor with SAIC, Attocknie has served as a flight controller, astronaut crew workplace engineer, and astronaut crew teacher. He joined NASA simply as the primary two modules of the area station, Zarya and Unity, related in area on Dec. 6, 1998.  

“I’ve supported the area station ever since and have been blessed to witness the exceptional development of this superb orbiting experiment,” he mentioned. “I really feel I’ve discovered a solution to contribute positively to NASA’s mission: to enhance life for all individuals on our planet.” 

He additionally contributed to closing out the Area Shuttle Program and labored in system security for the Constellation program. 

As a part of SAIC’s Worker Useful resource Group, Attocknie helps the Arithmetic, Engineering, Science Achievement venture, which makes use of project-based studying to encourage highschool college students from underrepresented communities to pursue careers in science, expertise, engineering, and arithmetic. He continues to advocate for Native Individuals as a member of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, serving to NASA interact with school college students throughout Indian Nation. 

Attocknie strives to contribute to an area exploration legacy that uplifts and unites cultures, paving the way in which for a future in human spaceflight that honors and empowers all. 

A member of the Comanche and Caddo tribes of Oklahoma, he has made it his mission to create a cross-cultural alternate between NASA and Native communities to supply alternatives for Natives to go to Johnson.  

One in every of his proudest moments was organizing a Native American Heritage Month occasion with NASA’s Equal Alternative and Variety Workplace. The celebration introduced collectively Native dancers and singers from Oklahoma and Texas to honor their heritage at Johnson.  

“Seeing the Johnson neighborhood rally round this occasion was superb,” mentioned Attocknie. “It was a profound expertise to share and have fun my tradition right here.” 

Overcoming challenges and setbacks has been a part of his NASA expertise as nicely. “Discovering and reaching my objective is all the time an ongoing journey,” he mentioned. “Accepting what may appear to be a regression is step one of progress. There’s all the time a lesson to be discovered, and each disappointment can gas a brand new ambition and route. Journey the waves, be humble, be taught classes, and above all, all the time preserve going.” 

He believes that NASA’s mission is deeply related to range and inclusion. “You may’t actually profit humankind when you don’t characterize humankind,” mentioned Attocknie. “The established order could really feel snug, however it results in stagnation and is the antithesis of innovation.” 

Attocknie’s hope for the Artemis Technology? “A more healthy planet, society, and the will to move on classes of stewardship for the environment. All life is treasured.” 

He sees NASA as a gateway to a brighter future: “NASA can actually harness its affect to be an instance for our planet, not solely within the new heavenly our bodies we journey to but in addition within the new human spirits we contact.”