The first time Izeal Battle saw a plane fly over him in Pahokee, Florida, he knew he was meant to be a part of something big.
“As a kid, I was raised to be a migrant worker where I worked in the fields,” said Battle. “One day, I was out in the field and I looked up, I saw some airplanes, and I started wondering, ‘What are they doing, how are they able to stay up in the air?’ and that’s what made me want to know how to make things fly.”
Battle’s interest in flight continued to grow when his family moved to Cocoa, Florida in 1963.
After finishing school, Battle achieved his dreams when he took a job working on the Space Shuttle Program at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Nowadays, he is one of the spacecraft technicians with ASRC Federal, working on the Orion spacecraft. His work includes developing the Orion crew module adapter, which connects electrical, data, and fluid systems between the main modules and contains the electronic equipment for communications, power, and control for NASA’s Artemis missions.
Aside from living out his dream and getting to work on what he considers to be the ultimate flying vehicle — the Orion spacecraft — what Battle loves most is being able to engage with his community and inspire the Artemis generation.
“Those are the kind of things that I enjoy,” Battle said. “Not only making sure the astronauts are safely transported back and forth in Orion, but also showing these young kids the sky is no longer the limit,” Battle said. “You can do anything if you put your heart and mind to it and stick with your plan and don’t deter from it. That’s what I tell my kids, the kids in the community, and all my colleagues here.”
Check out some of our other I am Artemis features.
Image Credit: NASA