RICHMOND COUNTY — Petty Officer 2nd Class Kim Phan never imagined a small-town teenager from Rockingham would one day help guide a NASA recovery mission at sea.
Now an aerographer’s mate with the Navy, Phan played a key role in forecasting conditions for the Artemis II recovery mission — helping ensure the safe return of a spacecraft in a moment of history.
Phan began her Navy career six years ago, enlisting straight out of Richmond Senior High School.
“I come from this really small town, and if I look back at myself at 17, just getting out of high school, I would’ve never pictured myself doing something so cool. It feels like a reflection. I can look back at myself and be like, ‘Wow, this is my life right now.’ I didn’t know who I was really, and coming here at this command, working with the people I work with, they truly showed me a path, an opportunity, and gave it to me,” Phan said.
Selected as one of only two forecasters for the mission within her command, Phan said the opportunity carried both pressure and pride.
“Being selected is already in itself held me to a higher standard, and I was capable of doing it, and then it being successful as it was as a forecaster, it felt so rewarding,” Phan said.
Working aboard the USS John P. Murtha, Phan and her team provided critical weather and oceanographic forecasts that directly influenced mission decisions.
“We’re a team and there’s four of us total and we provide forecast support for the ship itself because it’s a Navy asset, so we’re attached to them, and we provided support for NASA specifically with their individual teams that were part of the recovery mission,” Phan said.
“That included the Sasquatch team, that’s what they call themselves — the Sasquatch team were mostly in charge of predicting where the pod was going to land, so they used their forecast, which included like the winds, the seas, and also weather below launches — that was another weather squad from the Air Force. Together, all three of us were able to predict where the pod was going to land and we happened to be pretty close to spot on to where the pod was going to land, and they were using our forecast daily that we provided to the ship,” Phan said.
Phan said the recognition for the mission stood out from typical Navy operations.
“It’s really nice to get this much recognition because usually, like for the Navy, it’s our job—it’s what we’re supposed and expected to do, but for this mission specifically, they really needed METOC as a part of the mission,” she said.
The mission also connected North Carolina to a broader moment in space history. Astronaut Christina Koch, who grew up in Jacksonville, NC, was also part of the Artemis II mission.
For Phan, the experience was also about leadership. She led a small team responsible for forecasts, scheduling and communication — without the direct oversight typically present in similar operations.
“They entrusted me I would say. I should probably take the credit for this one because they put me in leadership positions now, and for the Artemis mission, they selected me, and then my counterpart, another forecaster, and then two analysts,” Phan said. “I was mostly the one responsible for sending paperwork back, like administrative burdens back to my command. I was in charge making sure the watches were created, I was in charge of the equipment status updates, so that everything would be smooth for us.”
“Even the forecast, I was doing that as well. So the leadership, I played a big role in that, and they entrusted me with that without a chief or officer’s supervision, which is pretty crazy,” she added. “We did this entire mission, just two second-class petty officers. Like ‘wow, you really trust this 23 year old with a team and be successful?’”
She described the mission as a defining moment in her growth.
“I’ve been at this command for three years, and I feel like this has been exponential growth—like showing how much I can grow into a leadership position, and they’ve given me so many opportunities — Artemis mission is one of them for me to prove that I can fill this role,” Phan said.
Despite the scale of the operation, one of the most memorable moments came just before splashdown.
“When Captain spoke up, his speech was so moving and he just mentioned how we’re all a team, we’re all putting in a lot of work towards this one thing and tomorrow is go time,” Phan said. “Like when a player gets on the field — the captain made a lot of sports analogies — he really made an impact on giving me perspective on like ‘this is game day.’”
The landing itself, she said, was quieter — and more surreal — than expected.
“It’s so anticlimactic. What happened was, the pod gets to Earth’s atmosphere, it makes a ‘boom’ noise — I didn’t expect the boom,” Phan said. “I was also on the wrong side of the ship, I didn’t even see this thing, and it was a tiny little dot on the other side of the ship on the right side — I was on the left, and it was landing, so I ran to the right side, everybody’s running to see this pod enter the atmosphere, you don’t see it at first. It takes like 10 more seconds, and then you see this tiny little dot with strings, and then the little balloons — that’s the parachutes to bring it down, so it takes at least 30 more seconds for this thing to hit the ocean, and it’s far from us, we’re in its vicinity, but it’s far.”
“You can’t really hear it hit the ocean, but it goes down, and it’s deep, and then it comes back up, and then I look down at my watch, and I look at the time, because when we spoke with the NASA people, the WMS people, the entire brief, they said the specific time that this pod was going to land. So when it landed, I looked down at my watch, I nodded my head, and was like ‘yep, NASA did its thing.’ It was like 17:08. Down to the second they were correct about it. I was so impressed. I don’t know how they calculated that, but they were right.”
Beyond Artemis, Phan leads a team of 16 sailors, balancing daily responsibilities with high-profile missions.
“Artemis II is like a side quest. The main quest that I’m really responsible for is a whole other ship, a whole other team of 16, so Artemis was a small team of four,” she said.
Looking back, Phan credits her decision to join the military — and her willingness to embrace uncertainty — as key to her journey.
“My parents pushed me to do the military, and looking back, I don’t regret it. There are so many benefits to it,” Phan said. “At 17, you have so much room to grow. And so experiencing new things and being uncomfortable is what’s going to help you grow. Don’t stay in the same place. Go out and explore, and don’t be afraid to reach out to people.”
“You and yourself are responsible for your future. Don’t be afraid of the unknown,” she added.