Mechanical Engineer 3

Florida company's IData will guide the NASA Artemis II Orion spacecraft. Florida Today March 26, 2026, 5:03 a.m. ET * A Florida-based company, ENSCO, is providing cockpit display technology for NASA's Artemis II mission. * The IData software allows for flexible, real-time data displays for astronauts in the Orion spacecraft. * This technology allows for future display modifications without costly and time-consuming software recertification. * The Artemis II crew will be the first astronauts to use and provide feedback on the IData system in space. As NASA gears up for the historic Artemis II mission, a Florida-based aerospace technology company is transforming how astronauts interact with critical flight data, including real-time displays in Orion's cockpit. This company is known as ENSCO, and it has had a presence on the Space Coast since the 1980s. ENSCO has been working with the Air Force, the category which now falls under the Space Force, since 1988. Now the company is poised to have astronauts interact with its IData software in a cockpit display for the first time during the Artemis II mission. Today, ENSCO operates two offices on the Space Coast: one in Cocoa Beach and one in Melbourne. While the Melbourne facility focuses on work at nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the Cocoa Beach location focuses on work with both the Eastern Range and Western Range in California. However, for Artemis, the company is working alongside Lockheed Martin Space on a critical feature of the Orion spacecraft, which the four Artemis II astronauts will take on a test flight around the moon. Artemis II will be the first time in more than 50 years that humans have flown beyond Earth orbit. Ahead of the debut of IData on a crewed space mission, Bob Gillen, vice president of engineering at ENSCO spoke with FLORIDA TODAY during the SpaceCom in Orlando earlier this year. Lockheed Martin "came to us not only for the glass cockpit, but also for helping them in testing a lot of their systems within the display," Gillen said. ENSCO's IData software enables users to place any type of data onto a glass cockpit interface, allowing for flexible positioning and resizing of elements, Gillen said. Once the configuration is complete, the tool saves the setup into a reusable file. That's critical because if it's discovered that something could be added to the interface to help the astronauts, Gillen said it's easy for things to be added for later missions. Because IData is a reusable file, any changes do not alter the underlying software, he said. Therefore, it doesn't require costly and time-consuming recertifications. IData has already undergone extensive testing ahead of the Artemis II mission. Gillen said that the data ENSCO's system displays on the screen originates from a sensor on the SLS rocket stages. For those unfamiliar with aircraft and spacecraft operating systems, they differ from the preprogramed computer operating systems used by everyday people. A system on a spacecraft is what is known as a real time operating system. "So Linux, Windows, all these operating systems are not real time," said Gillen. "So what you do is you schedule an event, and then when the computer gets to it, it runs it so it's perfectly fine for 99% of uses. But in a rocket you want to make sure it's real time so that you don't have any delays between when something happens and it gets shown on the screen." The Artemis II crew will be the first to interact with ENSCO's IData, as the uncrewed Artemis I mission did not have astronauts to give feedback on the design. Artemis II astronauts will be able to give opinions on what worked well, what didn't and what could be improved. "So this is the first one that's going to be manned, where they'll have somebody looking at the screen. And there will definitely be changes between (Artemis) two and (Artemis) three," Gillen said. Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at [email protected] or on X: @brookeofstars.

ENSCO taps Gregory Grissom to lead Inspection & Asset Management Services. VIENNA, Va. - Gregory Grissom, P.E. steps into the role of Division Manager, Rail Inspection & Asset Management Services at ENSCO, Inc. According to ENSCO, Grissom holds more than 25 years of experience in railway engineering, leadership, and infrastructure technologies. In this role, Grissom is expected to "lead strategic initiatives to expand ENSCO's rail inspection and asset management services." He will apply his leadership experience and technical expertise to strengthen ENSCO's contract services operations and help to support its mission in delivering innovative engineering. Grissom has spent his career on building high-performing engineering and technology organizations and improving operational efficiency. Before ENSCO, Grissom served as President of Loram Technologies. In this previous role, he worked to deliver advanced rail maintenance and inspection for both freight and passenger rail. During his tenure, the company grew its use of automation, Internet of Things (IoT), and AI-enabled technologies in the pursuit of rail safety and predictive maintenance. Prior to Loram Technologies, Grissom worked in different leadership roles at Georgetown Rail Equipment Company (GREX). Additionally, Grissom holds both a Master of Science a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Delaware and is a licensed Professional Engineer in Illinois, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Texas. Grissom is also an inventor with multiple patents on railroad technology. Jackie Van der Westhuizen, Vice President of ENSCO's Surface Transportation Group, said, "Greg brings a quarter century of industry expertise and a proven record of advancing rail inspection technologies and infrastructure monitoring solutions... His leadership will strengthen our rail inspection and asset management services and help us deliver even greater value to our customers."