From Mission Control to Moon to Mars: NASA’s Christopher Leslie on Human Spaceflight

Susan Wise: Hi, and welcome to Stars Launch Pod: Space Technology and Research Sciences, brought to you by StarSciences.org, where we connect, collaborate, and accelerate. I’m your host, Susan Wise, and joining us today is Christopher Leslie. Hmm, I think I’ve heard that name a few times. Former mission control team member for the International Space Station, and current team member of NASA’s Moon to Mars Program Office—Christopher Leslie, welcome to the program.

C.E. Leslie: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Susan Wise: But you’ll always be just Chris to me, not Christopher Leslie. Oh my goodness.

C.E. Leslie: I’m fine with that.

Susan Wise: We’ve got to clue everybody in, because this is so crazy—we are back here talking to each other, and we haven’t actually seen each other for many, many years. How many years?

C.E. Leslie: Too many.

Susan Wise: A lot! So, we go back to my radio days in Houston, Texas—many moons ago, Chris. And now, I mean, I’ve got to tell you, from radio to what you’re doing and what you’ve been doing, I think you made the right career choice for sure.

C.E. Leslie: It’s been interesting.

Susan Wise: Well, tell us a little bit more about everything you’ve been doing.

C.E. Leslie: Okay. So, I was in radio, and my father-in-law said, “That’s a nice hobby, but what are you going to do for a real job?” I thought, all right, okay, Lieutenant Colonel father-in-law. So, I went back to school and got a degree in communications—believe it or not—from Concordia Lutheran in Austin. Most of my friends went off to seminary, but I went to grad school in Houston to work on a master’s in long-range strategic planning, because I liked that.

Then I got an internship at NASA, and that’s where everything happened. I started working on the Shuttle–Mir Program, where the space shuttle docked with the Russian Space Station to practice how we were going to build the International Space Station. That all went really fast, and they threw me in the deep end: “All right, Chris, you’re going to Russia to negotiate some plans.”

Susan Wise: Oh!

C.E. Leslie: I had never even been out of the country before—and they sent me to Moscow.

Susan Wise: Could you speak Russian?

C.E. Leslie: Not at the time. I can now, because we had to learn it for flight control training. But back then? No. Anyway, I did it, came back, and some of the negotiations were for real-time mission control operations. So I said, “Hey, I’d really like to go into mission control.” I applied, got accepted as a candidate, and went through training.

Susan Wise: Okay.

C.E. Leslie: Training started with what we called Space Flight Academy. We were “little space cadets”—that’s what they called us. There were lots and lots of tests, late-night study sessions, and plenty of stress. From there, you go through simulations in the simulator, then you work in the back room, supporting the people in the front room—the one with the big screens. Only after two to three years of training could you make it to the front room.

It went fairly quickly for me because the space station hadn’t started yet. We were all figuring things out—like daily story problems.

Susan Wise: That must have been exciting, to be at that level and see it all develop.

C.E. Leslie: Yeah. There were no procedures. It was a lot of trial and error. Then I worked in mission control for Expedition 1 through 10. I was back in Moscow for the first expedition at the Russian control center. That was pretty cool.

I was on console for 9/11—that was scary.

Susan Wise: I was on the air for that. I remember.

C.E. Leslie: Yeah, that was rough. The poor girl who came in after me—it was her first time, she’d just been certified. I looked at her and said, “Tracy, I don’t think we have any procedures for this. Good luck.” That was rough.

Then Columbia happened. I was in charge of mission planning for the next space station mission, which was canceled. We had astronauts stranded and didn’t know how to get them home, because all the plans had expired.

After that, the president announced we were going back to the moon to build a base. That became the Constellation Program. I wanted to be part of it, so I jumped in. By then, I had about 5,000 hours in mission control, and I knew what worked and what didn’t. I proposed building an analytical 3D model of the universe, adding artificial intelligence, and letting the crew plan their own missions. They said, “Great, make that happen.” I thought, “Wait, I just know it’s needed—I don’t know how to build it!” But we did. I ended up running a lab and getting several patents out of that work.

Then the next administration canceled the Constellation Program. What was left was the shuttle and the fledgling space station. So I became one of the managers in the astronaut office. That was different—less technical, more people management. And I learned I never want to manage people again!

Susan Wise: (laughs)

C.E. Leslie: Later, I went to Axiom Space, a commercial company. A lot of my friends had jumped to commercial. I became the internal mission manager for the first Saudi female astronaut. I got to help train her and manage the mission. That was awesome.

Then friends back at NASA asked me to help with the Moon to Mars Program. The administration had changed again, and the president said we’re going back to the moon, staying there, and then going on to Mars. So I returned to NASA, where I work now in the Moon to Mars Program Office.

Susan Wise: That’s so exciting.

C.E. Leslie: So, to explain: Artemis is the name of the program now—it replaced Constellation. It has six big elements:

• The SLS rocket, a Saturn V replacement.

• Orion, the spacecraft astronauts ride in.

• Gateway, a lunar space station.

• Lunar landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin.

• New space suits.

• Rovers—moon buggies and eventually pressurized rovers.

Each element has its own operations, budgets, and administration. Congress said we needed an overarching group to coordinate, like a conductor of a symphony. That’s the Moon to Mars Program Office. Within it, I’m in the Exploration Operations Group.

Our job is to plan missions five years out: define objectives, set priorities, work with all the elements, and ensure the mission is feasible. Once we’re about a year out, we hand the mission to Kennedy Space Center and mission control. On launch day, we sit on console and make sure the objectives we defined are accomplished.

Susan Wise: Got it.

C.E. Leslie: And if objectives aren’t met, we roll them into the next mission. Right now, I’m the mission engineer for Artemis V, where we’ll add a module to the Gateway station, land on the moon, and deploy a rover.

Susan Wise: Very cool. What has been one of your biggest “aha” moments?

C.E. Leslie: The biggest one came during training. Our instructor got us access to Mission Control—Building 30, which we weren’t normally allowed into. We walked into the shuttle mission control room with the big screens and consoles. The moment I sat down, a cloak of responsibility came over me. I thought, “This is real. These controls run human spaceflight for the United States. I can’t screw this up.” That weight never left me. It set the tone for my whole career.

Susan Wise: That gives me goosebumps.

C.E. Leslie: Yeah. Especially having lived through Challenger and Columbia. Decisions made in mission management affect everything. We carry that weight every day.

Susan Wise: What about challenges? How did you overcome them?

C.E. Leslie: Honestly, at every stage I doubted myself. First walking into mission control: “Can I even do this?” Same in simulations, same during real missions. Each time, you grit your teeth and move forward. Even later, when I was told, “Hey, you’re in charge of building software that takes mission control off the ground and into the spacecraft.” I had no idea how. You just move forward. Same with managing people—I wasn’t great at it, but I pushed through. That’s my advice: it’s terrifying, but don’t freeze. Just do it. Aim high.

Susan Wise: That’s powerful advice. And I am so proud of you. I knew you when you were—how old were you when you were an intern?

C.E. Leslie: Nineteen or twenty.

Susan Wise: Wow. You’ve come a long way, Chris.

C.E. Leslie: And I’ve got the gray hair to prove it.

Susan Wise: Before we wrap up, do you have a past or present passion project you’d like to share?

C.E. Leslie: Yes—clocks and watches. Timepieces fascinate me. A clock isn’t just a device—it measures the rotation of the Earth and its position relative to the sun. I dove deep into the history of timekeeping, AM/PM, longitude, hours. The universe itself is like a giant clock, with rotations influencing each other.

In mission control, I was literally in charge of the timeline—space and time. That inspired me to tinker and create. I even got patents out of it. I built a clock with no hands that runs backward, showing tides, moon position, and Earth orientation. A company in Europe picked it up and sold it. I also patented a watch design.

This all started when a very pretty girl gave me a gold watch when I was nineteen. It wasn’t for a holiday or birthday—just a gift. It was the first nice thing I’d ever received. I wore it forever until it wore out. Since then, I’ve collected watches. That one watch sparked a fascination with time—and taught me how valuable time really is.

Susan Wise: I love that. Thank you so much for sharing.

C.E. Leslie: You’re welcome.

Susan Wise: Chris, it has been such an honor. And speaking of time, we may need to do a Part Two—because you have so many more stories.

C.E. Leslie: Oh, I’ve got plenty of Russia stories.

Susan Wise: Then it’s a deal. Thank you so much for joining us today, Chris.

C.E. Leslie: You bet. Thanks for having me.

Susan Wise: Be sure to join us at StarSciences.org, where you can connect, collaborate, and accelerate. Get a free one-year membership by entering promo code FRIENDS321—that’s FRIENDS321.

And a big thank you again to Chris Leslie, former mission control team member for the International Space Station and current NASA Moon to Mars Program Office team member. We’ll definitely do a Part Two.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review and subscribe. And until next time—keep looking up.