Sean Tully always knew he wanted to pursue a career in aerospace and engineering. As a young boy, he and his brother would build paper airplanes to conceptualize how airplanes work and see how far they would travel. Inspired by his passions, Tully pursued a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, followed by a master’s in systems engineering from George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
Growing up in Rockville, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., Tully was provided with ample opportunities to visit air and space museums, which fueled his passion for space. He now lives in Ashburn, Virginia, with his wife and two dogs, a miniature schnauzer and a terrier. Tully enjoys reading, coaching ice hockey, and volunteering at a local high school to prepare and educate young athletes on a men’s rowing team on the difficulties of the sport.
Prior to serving in his current role as deputy chief engineer for HALO at Northrop Grumman, Tully was chief engineer for the Cygnus spacecraft, a cargo spacecraft resupplying the International Space Station. As deputy chief engineer, he now chairs numerous reviews and meetings to drive the technical design for the HALO module, the initial crew cabin for astronauts visiting the Gateway. In addition, Tully takes on further roles to evaluate changes and find design solutions for the program.
With many gifted engineers in the Gateway program focusing on design specifics, Tully focuses on understanding the bigger picture and figuring out how the puzzle pieces fit together. He enjoys working and collaborating with his NASA colleagues and nothing excites him more than envisioning the Gateway in orbit.
“Every night, I look up at the Moon from my house. Soon, an astronaut will be orbiting the Moon on Gateway from a much different perspective than where I’m at,” Tully said. “Every time I look up there, I recall how crew members interact on the space station to further human space exploration, and the reality sets in; Soon, there will be people orbiting the Moon, conducting science experiments, and prepping for lunar surface missions. When the hatch opens for the first time and we see the crew members interacting, that will be the most exciting thing for me.”
To learn more about Gateway, visit https://www.nasa.gov/gateway.
Image Credit: NASA