Bear Hugs When Artemis II Flew by the Moon, this Alum was in Mission Control After a lifetime of gazing at the stars, engineer Açmae El Yacoubi, PhD ’13, landed her dream job helping NASA explore space “Bear Hugs” celebrates heartwarming stories of Cornellians on the Hill and around the world. Have an idea? Email us at cornellians@cornell.edu! By Beth Saulnier Engineering alum Açmae El Yacoubi, PhD ’13, got her first telescope around age nine; growing up in Morocco, she was a huge fan of Jean-Pierre Luminet, the famed French astrophysicist and polymath. “Like pretty much any kid, I wanted to be an astronaut, and I was stargazing for as long as I can remember,” El Yacoubi recalls. “I used to play around putting a stick in the ground and tracking how its shadow moved during the day.” El Yacoubi during Artemis II’s splashdown on April 10th. El Yacoubi hadn’t been born when humans first went on lunar missions more than a half-century ago. But when they finally returned to the moon’s environs in spring 2026, she had a front-row seat—as a staffer in Mission Control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. El Yacoubi hadn’t been born when humans first went on lunar missions more than a half-century ago—but when they finally returned to the moon’s environs in spring 2026, she had a front-row seat. During the 10-day Artemis II mission in early April—when four astronauts traveled 5,000 miles behind the moon’s far side, putting them farther from Earth than any humans in history—El Yacoubi served as a trajectory analysis, optimization, and retargeting officer. The launch at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. The role (dubbed TARGO in NASA lingo) provides engineering support to the flight dynamics officers (FDOs, pronounced “fidos”) who plan and execute a space vehicle’s flight path. “We assist the FDOs with trajectory design and updates during flight, particularly around key burns,” El Yacoubi explains, “and provide solutions in case of off-nominal scenarios—aborts or alternate missions.” She served as a trajectory analysis, optimization, and retargeting officer (dubbed TARGO in NASA lingo), providing engineering support to the flight dynamics officers who plan and execute a space vehicle’s flight path. In the lead-up to Artemis II—NASA’s first crewed lunar flyby in two generations—El Yacoubi also helped develop and build the software that the FDOs used in Mission Control. She’s now working on Artemis III—and when it launches in 2027, she’ll be back in her TARGO role. NASA staff in Mission Control, located in Houston. “Space travel is a hard problem to solve,” she observes. “Many teams across engineering—and of course, the crew themselves—spent countless hours doing simulations to prepare. One can never be ready enough. There is always something to test for. So we have to have faith that with all the tests, all the rehearsals, we can make this a successful mission.” After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aeronautical engineering and fluid mechanics in France, El Yacoubi studied theoretical and applied mechanics on the Hill under Prof. Jane Wang, who has done groundbreaking work on modeling insect flight. Space travel is a hard problem to solve. Many teams across engineering—and of course, the crew themselves—spent countless hours doing simulations to prepare. But even with her Cornell doctorate, El Yacoubi’s efforts to find work in the U.S. aerospace industry were stymied by her status as a non-citizen. She spent years as a software engineer at MathWorks and various startups before becoming naturalized—and, happily, finding that NASA valued her skill set. She began working on the Artemis project in January 2023. An astronaut views Earth through the spacecraft’s window. Says El Yacoubi: “It definitely can make one feel chills down their spine, watching this huge craft soar in the sky with humans in it.” And if she had the chance, would she fly in space herself? “I definitely would,” she says. “I would like to feel what it’s like to see Earth from afar and feel weightless. It would make me feel even more grateful that we call this planet home.” Top: Artemis II passes by the moon. (All photos courtesy of NASA.) Published June 1, 2026 Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Campus & Beyond Hip Hop Collection Charts Early Days of a Cultural Phenomenon 6 Questions For ... What’s Up with the World of Work? ILR Dean Weighs In Alumni Award-Winning Author Mines Humor from Academic Absurdity