From Nottingham to Nasa - I've reached for the stars

Not many people can follow their dreams to the Moon and back but Susie Allen-Sierpinski is one of them.

As a space-obsessed child growing up in Bilborough, Nottingham, she eventually moved to Florida to pursue her passion.

After landing a job at Nasa, she now works as a mission integration engineer in the deep space logistics project, which looks at how to transport cargo, equipment, and food to enable the exploration of the Moon and Mars.

Following the worldwide interest in the Artemis II Moon quest, she said the mission had been a milestone success for all her family.

Allen-Sierpinski said her passion for space exploration started when she was about four, and a "once-in-a-lifetime" holiday to Florida ended up being the launchpad for a lifelong love.

"We did the Disney thing, and we came to the Space Center, and there was the man walking around in an astronaut suit, and I told my mum 'that's what I want to do'," she said.

"She said 'yeah, OK', and when I was about 10 I'd still got the bug, so she said, 'OK, we'll send you to Space Camp'.

"So I went to Space Camp for a week [and] had a great time.

"I think my mum was hoping that would ruin me on space, but it was the opposite, and from there I started to learn to fly."

Allen-Sierpinski's dreams hit a roadblock when she realised there were few university courses in the UK that could help her study space.

After finding a Florida college with the right course, she moved to the US, initially on her own, before her parents packed up life running a pub and flew over in support.

"Being an only child I was missed severely, so they followed," she said.

After charting her way through the course, Allen-Sierpinski found her way to a job with Nasa, which includes working on its project to establish a permanent lunar base.

"I work for the deep space logistics project, and we are responsible for planning how we get all of the supplies to the Moon," she said.

"Everything that the astronauts need to live and work - so clothes, food, water, oxygen, experiments and tools, things like that - and then how we dispose of it all safely."

While the Artemis II crew has gone further into space than any humans have in history, they were brought back down to Earth by a more everyday plumbing problem.

The four astronauts have had occasional complications with the Orion space capsule's toilet, which Allen-Sierpinski said is an occupational hazard that often goes overlooked.

"Space toilets are incredibly hard," she said.

"It's not one of those things that you would really think would be one of the hardest things, but it's one of those things we take for granted, and there's a lot to think about.

"We've had some challenges with this mission, but the crew are fantastic and we're working through it - we've learned lots, and we take that into our next mission."

Allen-Sierpinski's husband was part of the Artemis II recovery team and both parents' work with Nasa is proving to be an inspiration to their son.

"He can't decide who he wants to work with when he grows up, because daddy works on the launch and landing side, and mummy works in the space business," she said.

"He thinks he wants to work on a moon base currently, but that could change. I'm winning at the moment."

As well as navigating Artemis through its earthbound return, Nasa has also announced plans for a $20bn base to be built on the Moon, which Allen-Sierpinski said she is "really excited" about.

With the extra challenges of lunar dust, landing gear and other issues to work around, she said helping astronauts of the future shoot for the Moon and beyond is something she loves.

"It's incredible," she said. "It's hard work, and everybody is so proud."

Correction 11 April 2026: This story has been updated to clarify that Susie Allen-Sierpinski did not directly work on the Artemis II mission.

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