Madison Tuttle, A&S '21 (MA), stood on the deck of a Navy ship, watching with bated breath for the Artemis II astronauts to reenter Earth's atmosphere and hurtle toward the Pacific Ocean. Tuttle hadn't traveled around the far side of the moon, like the astronauts. But as a public affairs specialist for NASA, she'd spent eight years preparing for the occasion, writing press materials and creating multimedia stories that distill the complexities of space exploration for general audiences.
With a master's degree in science writing from Johns Hopkins University, Tuttle will join two other graduates who work for NASA—Thalia Patrinos, A&S '14, '21(MA), and Andrea Lloyd, A&S '25 (MA)—for a virtual Alumni Impacts talk hosted by Johns Hopkins' Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. There, the program's director Joe Fassler will moderate a conversation with Tuttle and her colleagues about their up-close experience with the Artemis missions, a bold series of endeavors designed to build a base on the moon to use as a proving ground and eventual launchpad for travel to Mars.
Ahead of the event, the Hub talked to Tuttle about working for NASA on the frontlines of Artemis, her passion for science writing, and what she learned at Johns Hopkins. The conversation has been edited and condensed.
Take us to back to April 10, as you're gearing up for the Artemis II splashdown. What stands out?
It was a pinch-me moment, for sure. I'd spent the past few nights on the ship, the USS John P. Murtha, positioned off the coast of San Diego. NASA uses the ship to recover astronauts and equipment returning from space, and my colleagues and I slept where sailors typically sleep—in bunk beds. The waves rocked me to sleep each night.
The day of the splashdown started off cloudy, and we worried we wouldn't be able to see much. But the clouds cleared, leaving a perfect blue sky. Primarily, my role was to make sure the public affairs team had what it needed, including up-to-date information from ground control and operations. We'd set up a live broadcast on the ship, and our photographers and videographers were on board supporting our coverage. So there was a ton of activity—and a mix of nervous energy and excitement running through the air.
Reentry is one of the most dynamic parts of a space mission—it carries extreme risk, with several parts and systems needing to work without a hitch at just the right time. The astronauts fly at about 25,000 miles per hour through temperatures of around 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The spacecraft Orion's heat shield needs to protect them from the extreme temperature, and then there's a six-minute communications blackout, when ground control has no way to communicate with the astronauts.
When we heard the sonic boom that happens with reentry, everyone relaxed somewhat. But more things had to unfold without a hitch—for instance, the deployment of parachutes to slow the speed. It all happened perfectly, and then—wow—they splashed down about a mile-and-a-half from the ship. We could see the whole thing. Everyone onboard and back at mission control cheered, and everyone continued cheering as the four astronauts climbed out of the capsule hatch, one-by-one, smiling. They'd traveled 694,000 miles from launch to splashdown. And mission control said: "From the pages of Jules Verne to a modern-day mission to the moon, a new chapter of the exploration of our celestial neighbor is complete. Integrity's astronauts—back on Earth."
I couldn't believe I was there. It felt like a major team accomplishment.
I bet that's a day you'll never forget, though I know you've been aboard the Navy ship multiple times and seen other splashdowns, including the Artemis I test run without humans. What most excites you about working on the Artemis missions, and how did you get interested in space?
As I kid, my dream job was to be an astronaut. But that changed as I got older, and when I arrived at college at Iowa State University, I had no clue what I wanted to do and took a mix of classes to figure it out. I wound up majoring in public relations, and my academic advisor had a background in science communications. She opened my eyes to the fact that science communications is an entire field—one that combined my love of space with my passion for public relations.
After college, I took a job at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, where I work now, and my interest in space only increased. That's when I decided to apply for and then enroll in Johns Hopkins' science writing program—it seemed like a natural fit that would help me build the career I wanted.
Working on Artemis and other space missions is incredibly exciting. I sit in on meetings with engineers and scientists who work at Kennedy Space Center. I collaborate every day with people at NASA's 10 locations nationwide. NASA has a ton of partners, and we're one giant team working together on the missions. I watch rockets and spacecraft being built, and I even got to go in Orion.
What was Orion like?
It's massive, especially if you compare it to those used on early human space-flights—I mean, those things are tiny. But Orion is also bigger than the commercial capsules currently operating at the International Space Station, the ISS.
Given the distance to the moon, extra space was necessary. NASA wanted astronauts to be comfortable, considering they would live there for 10 days for Artemis II. Orion is highly automated and mostly controlled by the ground and onboard systems. But it also has a giant manual control system, which pilot Victor Glover got to use to drive the capsule for a while on the mission.
Orion has the basic stuff humans need—places to sleep, store food, exercise, use the bathroom. There's a rowing-like machine for cardio and strength training, which is important because astronauts lose muscle in zero gravity. To sleep, they strap themselves in special sleeping bags attached to walls so they don't float around. One of the astronauts, Christina Koch, apparently slept in the middle part of the capsule, hanging upside down like a bat—an impossible position here on Earth, but without gravity, any orientation works. "Up" and "down" don't exist.
It sounds like you have a trove of stories to pull from as a writer. Did the science writing program at Johns Hopkins help evolve your skills?
When I started at NASA, I had the core competencies for my job—writing press releases and news stories and pitching to the media. But I wanted to deepen my storytelling skills and write narrative-based stuff. And that's what Hopkins helped with most.
In the program, I wrote science stories that were totally unrelated to space missions. This gave me practice coming at a story with zero or little background knowledge. I learned how to track down the right information, ask the right questions during interviews, and sharpen my overall approach.
The program also ignited my curiosity and love of learning. The number-one thing it takes to succeed in science writing is curiosity; second is a willingness to learn. Being able to write is obviously important, but remaining open, learning on the fly, and diving deep into things are critical. All of these are core to my job at NASA.
How do you approach storytelling at NASA?
My job at NASA involves collaborating with colleagues to tell stories across multiple media, primarily for the public and the press. But in all of these, step one is to consider the audience and ask the question: Why should they care?
NASA engineers turn bolts on hardware every day, but the public doesn't care about incremental steps and minutia or even individual milestones. When we write about individual milestones, we don't present them in isolation. The public wants to know how the milestones add up to something bigger. They want the larger context.
What's up next for the Artemis missions? Do you have a launch date for Artemis III?
The capsules for Artemis III, IV, and V are in production at Kennedy Space Center, with the launch of Artemis III planned for the spring or summer of 2027. Artemis III is a crewed test flight of the lunar landing systems and Orion's docking with the landers. It's a crucial step to Artemis IV, the mission designed to land a crew on the lunar South Pole in 2028, which hasn't happened since NASA's Apollo 17 mission in 1972. It's an exciting time.
