Jeff Williams

My name is Jeff Williams and I attended Capitol from Fall 2013 – Spring 2016 where I graduated with a BS in Aeronautical Engineering. At Capitol, I was heavily involved with programs such as the High Altitude Balloon project, Rocksat-X, and CACTUS-1 with the CubeSat Launch Initiative. During my time at Capitol, I worked as an intern at Goddard Space Flight Center as an Aerospace/Software Engineer supporting the Earth Science Missions Operations (ESMO) group.

That internship turned into a full time job on the day that I graduated, and lead to my eventual move down to Kennedy Space Center in Florida where I currently am working with the Launch Services Program as a Vehicle Systems Engineer. My job now is heavily involved with launching our NASA Missions and Astronauts on commercial launch vehicles, such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket. Some of my duties include reviewing, evaluating, and certifying launch vehicle design changes, sitting on console for day of launch operations, and giving official “Go/No-Go” calls during the launch countdown. Some notable missions I’ve been privileged to support are Mars 2020, Solar Orbiter, Landsat-9, SpaceX Crew-3, and SpaceX Crew-4.

With all of the exciting missions on the horizon and the plethora of new rockets coming online, there has never been a better time to get into the space industry. Capitol is a great place to get the education necessary to thrive as an aerospace engineer, and provides amazing networking opportunities that larger schools simply cannot offer.