Tony Bartolone is Lead Launch Project Engineer with Exploration Ground Systems
WATCH: NASA’s Tony Bartolone, an aerospace engineer with the Exploration Ground Systems Program (EGS), which supports the Artemis missions, talks with the Friday Night Locker Room’s Steve Wilson and Terry Spain.
BREVARD COUNTY • KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLORIDA – In the second of a series entitled “ARTEMIS – Future of Tomorrow,” Terry Spain and I had the opportunity to talk with NASA Lead Launch Project Engineer with the Exploration Ground Systems, Tony Bartolone. The conversation took place in the Firing Room at NASA.
We talked about his primary responsibilities on launch day. Bartolone told me, we “do all the technical integration of non-conformance troubleshooting. We have, as you can imagine, a variety of problems during the launch countdown. We bring those over to what is called an anomaly loop.”
Bartalone said he and two other launch project engineers bring in the appropriate personnel to conduct troubleshooting, and in turn, “bring a recommendation to the launch director and NASA test director as to how we are going to solve the problem for that mission.”
I asked Bartolone if the adrenaline is flowing on launch day. He smiled and said, “Oh yea, absolutely!”
He went on to say, “It’s an interesting mix of excitement and nerves, a little bit of anxiety and stress, but overall, just the thrill of being part of the launch team and knowing what you are setting out to accomplish that day. Hopefully everything goes according to plan, and you see the vehicle lift off the pad. At the end of the day, it is an amazing feeling to be a part of that.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Steve Wilson was born in DeRidder, Louisiana and grew up in both New Orleans and Macon, Georgia. He moved to Brevard County in 1984 and retired from local government as the Community Advocate/Assistant to the City Manager with the City of Rockledge in 2018.
Among the awards and accolades Steve has received over the years are 15 + year Rockledge Little League volunteer, Brevard Public School Jefferson Award Recipient, Rockledge High School Raider Booster Award 2001, 2006, City of Rockledge Employee of the Year 2006, Rockledge Kiwanian of the Year 2006-2007, City of Rockledge Quality Public Service Award 2008, 2012, 2017, Rockledge Kiwanis Citizen of the Year 2012-2013, Space Coast Sports Hall of Fame – Sportscasting 2015, Rockledge High School Leadership and Service Award 2016, Central Florida Humanitarian Award 2017, Space Coast Inspiration Award – 2018 and Space Coast Sports Hall of Fame – Lifetime Achievement – 2020.
Wilson is especially proud of is chairing two fundraisers in support of pediatric cancer research through the St. Baldrick’s Foundation in honor of Merritt Island resident Julie Spurlock that raised over $25,000.00.
He has been a partner, along with Orville Susong, for the past 24 years with the Friday Night Locker Room, a broadcasting team that covers and reports on a wide variety of local events that are of significance to the residents of the Space Coast and beyond. Their mission is to promote youth sports, support first responders and law enforcement personnel, and showcase community and charitable events that are produced by our nonprofit partners in central Florida.
The Friday Night Locker Room has awarded hundreds of sports achievement plaques to Brevard County student-athletes over the years. They have also awarded more than $18,000 in academic scholarships to Brevard County high school seniors.
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