Ike Theriot Helps Prepare Astronauts to Work on the Moon

From serving in the U.S. Army to helping prepare astronauts to explore the lunar surface, Ike Theriot built a path to NASA through discipline and determination. 

Theriot serves as the Flight Operations Surface Testing lead in the Exploration Extravehicular Activity Operations Branch within the EVA, Robotics, and Crew Operations Division at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. He integrates flight operations testing needs across the Artemis program, ensuring teams have the data, procedures, and experience required to prepare astronauts to live and work on the Moon. He is currently transitioning from this role to focus on mission development, astronaut training, and mission execution for the next lunar landing. 

Theriot helps develop and execute simulated moonwalks at Johnson and at field locations across the U.S. and internationally. He also helped lead development of the Lunar Grid Reference System, designed specifically for human operations on the Moon and now incorporated into flight control systems. 

Theriot plans and executes testing in facilities such as NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory and the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. He often serves as a suited test subject and trains others to become test conductors and test leads, building the next generation of surface operations experts. 

In the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, the agency’s 40-foot-deep pool used to simulate microgravity, Theriot has supported International Space Station spacewalk rehearsals and lunar surface testing, helping refine procedures that astronauts will use in orbit and on the Moon. 

Theriot has supported testing of NASA’s government reference exploration spacesuit design and Axiom Space’s lunar spacesuit, the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or AxEMU. In the Active Response Gravity Offload System, known as ARGOS, he practiced geologic sampling operations in the AxEMU, examining a collected sample before stowing it. The system offloads body weight to simulate lunar gravity, allowing teams to refine surface procedures and hardware performance before astronauts step onto the lunar terrain. 

He has also evaluated new lighting configurations during suited test runs supporting development of Artemis crew training curriculum, assessing how visibility affects safety and task execution in a simulated lunar environment. 

In addition, Theriot supports International Space Station spacewalks as a certified flight controller and was recently selected as a capsule communicator, or capcom. He has begun simulation training for that role, where he will serve as the voice between the Mission Control Center and astronauts in low Earth orbit. 

Theriot’s work extends far beyond NASA facilities, into remote environments that mirror the realities of lunar surface operations. During a field campaign at Kamestastin Crater in Labrador, Canada, Theriot trained alongside members of the Artemis II crew. Formed approximately 36 million years ago, the impact crater provides terrain similar to areas astronauts may encounter on the Moon and offers valuable geology training in a remote environment accessible only by boat. 

Theriot’s interest in space began while deployed overseas with the Army. In Iraq, he was tasked with setting up a satellite transceiver that failed on first power-up. After observing technicians perform field repairs, he began taking online engineering courses in his spare time, studying orbital mechanics, circuit design, cryptography, and space power systems. Later, while deployed to Afghanistan, he spent evenings stargazing and tracking the space station as it passed overhead. 

After leaving the Army, Theriot earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Houston and secured an internship at Johnson in 2016, rotating between engineering and flight operations teams. He accepted a full-time position in 2019, just as NASA announced plans to return astronauts to the Moon under the Artemis program. 

His most valued achievements involve setting others up for growth and success. Several years ago, Theriot created a Field Navigation Exercise at Challenger 7 Memorial Park in Houston to strengthen lunar surface navigation skills. As surface operations planning accelerated, he recognized many had limited field experience. He built the exercise and mentored others to lead it. 

More recently, he served as test conductor for a major lunar spacesuit test series in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, spending months refining procedures and coordinating teams. On one occasion, the 19th Field Navigation Exercise and a Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory test run occurred on the same day. Both were led by people he had trained. Theriot took the day off. 

For him, that was success. 

Over time, his perspective on leadership has evolved. Early in his career, he believed the hardest challenges were technical. Now, he believes the greater challenge is providing the leadership and guidance that enable technical work to succeed.

For the mission to the Moon and beyond, Theriot hopes the agency demonstrates something larger than exploration alone. 

“Each day presents a new and interesting challenge, and I can feel myself growing to meet those challenges,” he said. “Through the Artemis missions, like the Apollo missions, I hope we can all show the world that impossible things can happen.”