Goddard Engineering and Technology Directorate

Glenn Bazemore: Professional Problem-Solver

NASA mechanical engineer Glenn Bazemore’s creativity extends beyond work to pop culture pursuits as well. “I’m really a nerdy person. I collect Legos and action figures. I go to comic cons,” he said. In this photo, he wears a costume inspired by the television show “The Mandalorian” and the movie “Jurassic Park.” Photo Credit: NASA / Chris Gunn
NASA mechanical engineer Glenn Bazemore’s creativity extends beyond work to pop culture pursuits as well. “I’m really a nerdy person. I collect Legos and action figures. I go to comic cons,” he said. In this photo, he wears a costume inspired by the television show “The Mandalorian” and the movie “Jurassic Park.” NASA / Chris Gunn

Glenn Bazemore is a mechanical engineer working on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Team. He also aims to become an astronaut.

Name: Glenn Bazemore
Title: Mechanical Integration Engineer
Formal Job Classification: RST Mechanical Integration Engineer
Organization: Integration Branch (Code 568.0)

Glenn Bazemore is a mechanical engineer working on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Team. He also aims to become an astronaut. Since childhood, Bazemore has been creating and tinkering. As evidenced through his hobbies just as much as through his work, Bazemore’s problem-solving prowess helps him contribute to NASA’s next flagship telescope, which is set to probe important questions in infrared astrophysics.

What is your role here at NASA and on the Roman mission?

On Roman, I helped with a subsystem inside its Wide Field Instrument (WFI) called the simplified Relative Calibration System (sRCS). This sub-system will be used to help scientists accurately measure light output from cosmic entities like galaxies and stars. I assisted heavily on the main sRCS that will fly on Roman, and I ran the mechanical integration on the flight spare unit, which has just completed environmental testing (TVAC) and is heading into storage.

What got you interested in mechanical engineering?

My interest began when I was five years old and stayed home from school, sick. My dad sat me in front of the TV, and I watched VHS tapes of Star Wars, the original trilogy, all the way through. Afterward, I wanted to be a Jedi. I looked into the closest thing, and learned it was an astronaut. I am still actively pursuing becoming an astronaut, but I am currently an aerospace mechanical engineer.

My family made me the man I am today. I started by rebuilding Kodak video cameras. Our family had an old camcorder. For days, I took it apart and put it together to make it work. Then I got into robotics and remote control or RC airplanes. My dad took me to the hobby store to buy model rockets, and every week we went and launched them. That got me interested in the analysis side, as I would add and remove components from the rockets and RC planes to see how they would affect the performance or flight path…

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