From left, Sean McCrary and Katie Mortensen, mechanical engineering technicians, paint NASA’s Artemis logo on the White Room connected to the crew access arm and mobile launcher inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.
Credit: NASA/Frank Michaux
NASA has awarded approximately $10.5 million to seven institutions to help strengthen and streamline state-based pathways for students into skilled technical jobs in the aerospace industry.
The awards were made through the new NASA Aerospace Skilled Technical Workforce Hubs initiative, or NASA State Hubs. This investment in state ecosystems is designed to accelerate the development of technical roles to meet the talent demands of the space industry.
“The need for technical talent is already urgent and will only continue to grow as we return humanity to the Moon and set our sights on Mars and beyond,” said Elaine Ho, associate administrator for the Office of STEM Engagement at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “NASA is uniquely positioned to be the catalyst and convener that accelerates America’s aerospace workforce development and fosters the next generation of technicians.”
The newly awarded NASA State Hubs, represented across seven states, will function as strategic conveners that align industry employers, community colleges, high school career and technical education programs, and workforce systems to facilitate bringing students into high‑demand technical jobs, including welders, electricians, machinists, and other highly trained workers who use advanced STEM knowledge and technical skills in their occupations.
Over the next three years, the selected organizations will create programs that build critical skills identified by industry leaders, illuminate career pathways through education and apprenticeships, and build connections between employers and job seekers.
The awarded organizations are:
Antelope Valley Community College District in Lancaster, California
Georgia Tech Research Corporation
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
Southern Utah University
Space Florida
State Board for Community Colleges and Occupation Education, Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, Colorado
Texas Space Commission
NASA State Hubs cooperative agreements are funded by the Office of STEM Engagement through its Next Gen STEM Project. The Office of STEM Engagement advances NASA’s mission by boosting the nation’s research capacity, building technical expertise, and strengthening participation in aerospace fields. The Next Gen STEM project extends this impact by preparing high school and community college students for future aerospace careers through strategic partnerships and competitive awards that develop the vital skills needed to power our Golden Age of exploration and innovation.
NASA’s Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility (IV&V) held a swearing-in ceremony for civil servants on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, at the facility in Fairmont, West Virginia. In total, 51 new employees were hired at IV&V as part of NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman’s directive to strengthen NASA’s technical core competencies.
Growing up in Grafton, West Virginia, engrossed in Star Wars and all things science fiction, Fletcher Newell had an early interest in space exploration. That interest only grew when, in 2013, his fourth-grade class took a field trip to a nearby NASA facility he had not yet heard of – NASA’s Katherine Johnson Independent Verification & Validation Facility, located in Fairmont, West Virginia. Thirteen years later, Newell and 48 of his colleagues at the facility were sworn in as NASA civil servants during a ceremony on Aug. 10.
“I had always admired NASA from afar,” said Newell, who started working at IV&V as a systems engineer contractor in early 2025. “To my surprise, the agency was doing impactful work in my backyard.”
During high school, he began cultivating programming skills that would lay the foundation for his future. A self-professed computer aficionado, Newell taught himself how to code. In algebra class, he discovered that his graphing calculator was programmable, leading him to create basic scripts. He quickly moved to popular software applications, learning how they were built in order to develop his own programs. Artificial intelligence was still on the brink of becoming mainstream, but he was already asking himself, “What are the more interesting things we can teach computers to do?” As a junior in 2019, the precocious programmer merged his talents with his passion for space after being accepted into IV&V’s high school internship program. Newell created a database for engineering methods, processing hundreds of documents to facilitate the work of his colleagues from a procedural aspect.
“Working as a high school intern really elevated my fascination for NASA,” he said.
Following graduation in 2020, Newell headed west to Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, majoring in, naturally, computer science, with a focus on AI and machine learning when both were scaling rapidly across industries and in everyday usage.
Instead of pursuing internships in the neighboring Silicon Valley – widely considered the global center for technological innovation – he returned to West Virginia for three consecutive summers, cutting his teeth at the Fairmont facility.
Fletcher Newell stands in front of the Katherine Johnson Independent Verification & Validation Facility in Fairmont, West Virginia, as a high school intern in 2019.
Photo courtesy: Fletcher Newell
He began researching AI safety as engineers learned how to give spacecraft more onboard autonomy and have them learn on their own. Later, he was on a team responsible for assessing the safety of Terrain Relative Navigation, a vision-based guidance technology that could enable spacecraft to land on planetary surfaces without GPS. During his final internship, generative AI – which creates content based on user prompts – was becoming widespread, and he worked on teams exploring how to responsibly integrate it into mission assurance.
Newell also performed research about autonomous space docking at Stanford’s Center for AI Safety, resulting in two publications. Following his undergraduate education, he remained at Stanford to earn a master’s in computer science.
When it came time to enter the workforce, one organization was atop his list. A contractor opportunity opened up at IV&V, and he leapt at the chance.
“I enjoyed the work at IV&V back in high school and college,” he said. “There’s nothing better than pursuing what aligns with your interests.”
As a systems engineer, he has worked primarily on mission safety and security, identifying and resolving system defects and vulnerabilities for such spacecraft as Space Reactor-1 (SR-1) Freedom, Orion, Gateway, and the Human Landing System, all while helping guide NASA’s responsible adoption and development of AI systems.
His colleagues took notice of their junior member’s contributions, resulting in Newell being named IV&V Engineer of the Year in 2025 less than a year into the job after identifying more than 70 issues in Gateway – and later SR-1 Freedom – with clear mission impact and, as noted in his award citation, developing a reputation for clearly articulating their implications.
“During his internships and now as a full-time engineer, Fletcher has consistently demonstrated exceptional talent, curiosity, and a passion for our mission,” said Wes Deadrick, IV&V director. “He could have gone almost anywhere after Stanford. The fact that he chose to come home to build his career supporting NASA through the IV&V Program makes me incredibly proud.”
The Aug. 10 ceremony for Newell and his colleagues was part of NASA’s workforce directive to bring core, mission-critical positions into the civil service, from early-career professionals to seasoned technical experts.
“It’s an investment in NASA’s future, giving us the opportunity to bring exceptionally talented people into the civil service while strengthening long-term technical capabilities that support our nation’s most challenging missions,” said Deadrick. “At IV&V, initiatives like this help ensure we continue providing independent expertise and mission assurance that our customers depend on.”
For Newell, as he takes this next step in his professional progression as a civil servant computer engineer, he looks forward to expanding on his responsibilities, especially to help NASA return to the Moon. He is currently helping identify safety and security issues, including ones that could impact crew safety and lead to the loss of spacecraft control, related to the agency’s lunar endeavors.
“At IV&V, teams are ensuring every major lunar vehicle and system will be ready to safely embark on their missions, not just for flying around the Moon, but also for putting American boots on the surface and eventually establishing and working on a Moon Base,” he said.
More than a decade after taking that field trip and now working on some of NASA’s high-priority missions, Newell readily admits he didn’t always envision staying in West Virginia.
“It was a little strange coming back, but I was continually getting to do amazing things at an amazing organization in a place I already know,” Newell said. “And that’s really cool.”
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