Special to IFN

A Pine Lake Prep graduate is playing a key role in the Artemis II space mission.

Bryce Clegg, a 2017 grad of the Mooresville charter school, is a Guidance, Navigation and Control Engineer with Lockheed Martin. He is working in mission control for Artemis II, which is NASA’s first mission with a crew aboard the deep space rocket, the Space Launch System, and Orion spacecraft. The mission’s goal is to “pave the way for lunar surface missions, establishing long-term lunar science and exploration capabilities, and inspire the next generation of explorers.”

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket lifted off from Launch Pad 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. Wednesday, sending four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft on a planned test flight around the moon and back.

After graduating from PLP, where he was a high school SPORK robotics team captain, Clegg  earned a B.S. in Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical/Space Engineering from Virginia Tech and a master’s degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Denver.

Clegg is the son of PLP teacher Leslie Clegg.