Ask an Alum: Nate Lee '15 on Reaching the Stars (Through Engineering)

Ahead of this year's SAAS in the City on April 25, we catch up with our alumni panelists, who will share more about their journeys at the event. Learn more about SAAS in the City and get your tickets here. 

When NASA launched the Artemis 1 mission to the moon in 2022, Seattle Academy alum Nate Lee '15 was there. A Systems Engineer at Lockheed Martin Space, Nate had led testing of the Orion capsule which was now rocketing into space. On launch day, he worked from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to help ensure the multi-day trip to the moon started smoothly. 

It’s one of his proudest career moments to date. “I was on third shift, working from 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM, but it was more than worth it,” Nate says. 

Before he joined Lockheed Martin right out of the University of Colorado Boulder’s Aerospace Engineering program, Nate explored his passion for engineering back at SAAS, where he participated in Robotics and took an Intro to Engineering course. 

But despite knowing he wanted to be an engineer from a young age, Nate wasn’t shoehorned into a science-only path. At SAAS he was involved in everything from performing arts to sports, which he says helped him build soft skills that served him well in engineering school and beyond. 

Ahead of this year’s SAAS in the City, where Nate will be one of our featured alumni speakers, we chatted with him about life at and after SAAS. 

What was your time at SAAS like, and what experiences were most memorable for you?

I was at SAAS from 6th to 12th grade, and so I had the whole journey, which was awesome. 

One of the most impactful things I did was Robotics in my junior and senior year. I also played on sports teams the whole time – I was never very good, but I did it every trimester, and that was always really fun. I did a little bit of jazz choir, and I helped out doing sound mixing for a lot of the vocal performances and theater productions.

In line with the spirit of SAAS, you tried a bit of everything – what was valuable about having that wide range of experiences?

It was great to try different things with low consequences. It was always presented as: you can give this a try, and you don't have to like it, but if you like it, then there are a lot of paths to continue down.

There was always a really cool growth opportunity for each of those different interests. At SAAS, you're never really told, “Oh, you can't do that.” It was always like, “Okay, you want to do that. We have opportunities to do that. Let's see how far we can go with it.”

You mentioned participating in Robotics and taking an engineering class at SAAS helped you develop those interests. In what other ways did SAAS set you up for success in college and your career?

You know the stereotype that engineers can't talk to people? 

SAAS’s “Culture of Performance” really helped set me up to study engineering in college. Because SAAS does so many group projects and so many kinds of presentations—whether it’s jazz choir, theater, or dance—I went into college knowing that I could stand in front of a group, present to people, and talk to people.

A lot of people don't get that experience, especially in engineering school. It definitely set me up for success, and it's helped me in my career, as well – being able to lead group projects and being comfortable working with people. 

After studying engineering at University of Colorado, Boulder, where did your career take you next? What have you been most proud to work on? 

For the first couple years of my engineering career, I worked in a test lab on the NASA spacecraft Orion. A couple years ago, I switched to doing ATLO (Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations), so now I lead testing on the flight vehicle down in Florida. I go to Florida a decent amount and execute system-level testing. It's really cool to be able to see the hardware and see how the whole process comes together. It definitely keeps me engaged. 

We build Orion in the same building that parts of the Apollo spacecraft are built in, and it's also the same building where the astronauts stay before they go to the space station. So if you've seen pictures from Apollo, with the astronauts walking out the door to the astronaut van – that door is about 20 feet away from our control room. It’s super cool to be in a building with that much history. 

The thing I'm probably most proud of is I got to go down to Kennedy Space Center in Florida to support the launch of Artemis I, the first in a series of missions meant to enable human exploration of the Moon.

What advice would you give to SAAS students? 

Pursue things that make you a little bit scared. It's always worth it. SAAS is such a safe environment to push those boundaries, and you might find something that you really like that you didn't know about. It’s valuable to grow yourself as a person while you have those opportunities.

How do you feel about participating in SAAS in the City this year?

I'm honored to be invited to share my experiences. I volunteered at SAAS in the City when I was a high school student, and I'm curious to see how this year is – I know SAAS has grown pretty significantly since then. I'm excited to see everyone else’s talks and get to hear all their experiences, and of course, it'll be fun to see the student performances.