Fifty years later, the firing room will be led by the first woman launch director. As launch director, Blackwell-Thompson will oversee the countdown first launch of NASA’s astronaut capsule, the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System, the mission known as Artemis-1, from Kennedy Space Center launch pad 39B. Artemis-1 Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson in the firing room at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Control Center. AdMorgan, who started in 1958 as an intern with the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency, would become the first female engineer at Kennedy Space Center, but it wasn't without challenges. “If there are young people or young girls that look at NASA's female launch director, and they say, ‘You know what?