![\"MABE](\"https:\/\/tickle.utk.edu\/mae\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/07\/Tyvak-and-JAXA-team-at-MPPF_Hawkins-1024x773.jpg\")
In fact, despite the pandemic, a record number of satellites were launched in 2020, more than triple the number from the year before, according to the Satellite Industry Association, an upward trend that seems poised to continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvery satellite company that I know of is hiring, and at a record pace,\u201d Hawkins said. \u201cI think that UT graduates are in a great position to enter this emerging market.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hawkins was not the only one with MABE connections during his time on the Artemis I mission. NASA Space Act Agreements Manager and Architecture Lead for Exploration Augmentation Module Project Paul Bookout (MS \u201902), whose career spans from shuttle missions to deep space habitats, was also working on the program from the NASA side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bookout worked on his master\u2019s degree in engineering science and mechanics while working at NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center, but now finds himself on the cusp of retirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI got to work with Dr. Bookout during a special integration with a full team of engineers from<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency,\u201d said Hawkins. \u201cInterfacing with Japan\u2019s space agency was really a dream come true. I think Tennessee has a special connection with Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Japanese satellite at the heart of that project\u2014OMOTENASHI, the Japanese word for hospitality\u2014will make a controlled descent to the lunar surface, which would make Japan the fourth nation to successfully land on the Moon, following the US, the Soviet Union, and China. India and Israel have each had planned landings end in crashes in recent years, highlighting the difficulty of the task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lander would provide valuable data related to landing maneuvers, as well as radiation measurements, helping pave the way for future missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During his time on campus, Hawkins was a driving force in several activities including the launching of Tech CarniVol, a science and technology day of activities for Tickle College of Engineering students that ran alongside Engineers Day, and working with UT\u2019s Amateur Radio Club to earn selection for a chance to try to contact the International Space Station as it passed overhead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Space has long been his passion, though, and one of the biggest impacts he made while at UT was helping found the Student Space Technology Association in 2015. Now more than six years later, it is still going strong with healthy support from students, faculty, staff, and donors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a role Hawkins is rightly proud of playing, and one that he hopes continues to inspire students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI loved my time at UT and I am so grateful for the opportunities it afforded me,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I was in school, I tried really hard to promote space to the college, and in just a couple of years I was able to work on some of the biggest programs at NASA. I want students to know that UT is represented here at the edge of science and exploration, and that they can be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you are a student interested in working in space-related fields, your odds are good of finding those opportunities, according to Hawkins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou have to be building things constantly,\u201d he said. \u201cThe administration was a huge supporter of extracurricular engineering and funding was always available when we needed it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n