Chris Sembroski, a data engineer from the Seattle region who traveled into space for the first time in SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule last year, now works full-time as an avionics engineer at Blue Origin.
Chris Sembroski's Announcement on Joining Blue Origin
In a tweet, Sembroski announced his new position with a picture of the Blue Origin's orbital-class New Glenn rocket lifting off, with an embedded caption, "I've joined Blue Origin."
He introduced his tweet by writing, "As I said, space beckons us." It taunts us."
He also announced that the Hubble Telescope and JWST had piqued the desire to explore and seek new adventures. Yet, he gave no other information about his responsibilities at the company. He has already updated his LinkedIn page, citing his job title as an avionics engineer.
As I said, space beckons us. It taunts us.
— Chris “Hanks” Sembroski (@ChrisSembroski) July 18, 2022
Images of our universe from Hubble and JWST pull on our desires to explore and to seek out new adventures.
I am thrilled to be a part of our expansion out to the rest of the universe–AND to announce I have joined @blueorigin! Let’s go! pic.twitter.com/ee4PWMLvhY
Sembroski on His Inspiration4 Space Mission Journey
Sembroski used to work on Minuteman missiles for the United States Air Force. He was a lead engineer for fault detection and diagnostics at Lockheed Martin in Everett, Washington. He departed Lockheed Martin to work as a senior analytics engineer at DB Engineering in Redmond, Washington. He pledged, at the time, that he would continue pursuing his interest in space.
"What's amazing about all this is that when you step back, you realize that every firm is a space company," he told GeekWire.
Sembroski is no stranger to space, having spent his high school nights stargazing on the building's roof and his college days making and launching model rockets. While in college, Sembroski was a Space Camp counselor and a volunteer with the space lobbying organization ProSpace.
After receiving his degree, he became a member of the U.S. Air Force, maintaining Minute III intercontinental ballistic missiles. He was also deployed to Iraq in the mid-2000s. Following his separation from the service, he attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to acquire a Bachelor of Science in Professional Aeronautics.
During his stint at Lockheed Martin, he was selected as one of the four crew members for September's charitable Inspiration4 space mission. He benefited from a winning lottery ticket purchased by a friend who opted not to attempt the orbital journey.
Sembroski told Space.com that he was excited to be able to merge his professional career back into aerospace, doing the work that he did. He said it felt overwhelmingly satisfying and amazing to be part of the mission. He also felt so blessed that so much generosity was forwarded to him to make it all happen.
The offer of the orbital journey, according to Sembroski, came as a major surprise. He admitted that he knew that he wasn't the physically fittest guy out there, but he was okay with that.
In the three-day, free-flying expedition, Sembroski was tasked with taking images of the crew within the capsule and the planet below. Sembroski played the ukulele during the crew's time in space and was also seen in a viral video clip watching "Spaceballs" on his tablet during the crew's return to Earth.
"One of my favorite movies," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted in response.
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