Psyche mission leader’s tips for calm management

Psyche mission – NASA’s Psyche principal investigator shares leadership lessons drawn from a near-crisis with a cold-gas thruster and a wider framework for high-performing teams.

A rocket countdown can expose character in a way few moments do: when a technical anomaly threatens millions—and liftoff itself—scientists either lose their composure or lock into a steadier way of working.. For Lindy Elkins-Tanton. the principal investigator of NASA’s Psyche mission. a late-night thruster problem became more than a test of engineering.. It turned into a case study in how strong teams manage pressure.

The scene unfolded around 2 a.m.. near Kennedy Space Center. when a large group of scientists struggled to interpret data tracking the temperature of a rocket component.. A cold-gas thruster—designed to help place the spacecraft in the right position so it can communicate with Earth after launch—was not performing properly.. With only about 12 days remaining before liftoff. the issue put the entire $1.2-billion mission at risk. forcing teams to decide quickly how to respond.

Yet the response, Elkins-Tanton writes, was notable for its restraint.. In the opening of her new book. Mission Ready: How to Build Teams That Perform under Pressure. she describes a moment where the emotional storm never arrived.. Instead. the group remained focused: people listened to one another. offered suggestions. and broke into subteams tasked with testing possible solutions around the clock.. In her telling. the mission’s ability to keep moving depended as much on how the team worked together as on the technical fixes themselves.

That episode ultimately resolved the immediate threat, and the Psyche spacecraft launched as planned.. The mission is now partway through a six-year journey intended to reach the asteroid 16 Psyche. a destination that has drawn fascination partly because of what it may represent.. Based on telescopic observations, the object appears to be composed largely of metal.

After it arrives in 2029, the spacecraft is expected to spend nearly two years studying the asteroid.. The investigation is set against a backdrop of uncertainty that comes with deep-space targets: the farther away the mission reaches. the more the measurements rely on careful planning. robust instrumentation. and rapid problem-solving when unexpected behavior appears.

Elkins-Tanton. a professor of planetary science at the University of California. Berkeley. is also the author reflecting on what leading such an enterprise taught her about team-building.. She argues that the project management techniques used to keep an interplanetary mission on track can be valuable far beyond aerospace. offering a transferable framework for workplaces on Earth.

In an interview about the book and her leadership approach. she said calm under pressure is both teachable and something people must actively maintain.. Her emphasis was on the “trust” built across the team—an environment where individuals understood that their expertise was respected.. That mutual confidence, she suggested, helped prevent panic from taking over when the stakes were extreme.

She also described leadership as collaboration for much of the time.. While she acknowledged that there are moments when a leader must provide direction or make a final decision. she framed the broader work of leadership as enabling others to succeed.. In that view, the role involves helping teams do their best, rather than simply issuing instructions.

Elkins-Tanton said her leadership style evolved as she confronted the question of authenticity in technical environments.. She recalled not initially seeing herself primarily as a leader. then making a deliberate decision to bring her real self into the role—arguing that individual people are not interchangeable. because individuals are effectively what a team is made of.. Under pressure, that mindset translated into a culture where participation and accountability could coexist.

Her discussion of “soft skills” was grounded in experience outside academia and planetary science.. She pointed back to an early career stint as a management consultant working with a helicopter manufacturer. where she helped confront issues with inventory counts.. The problem. she said. was not that workers lacked ability to count; it was that incentives and processes did not encourage accuracy. thorough records. or time spent working correctly.

From that work. she described an approach focused on people: rather than treating performance as purely technical. processes needed to be redesigned to motivate individuals to do the work the right way.. She also described returning to science after a decade in business as an advantage. learning tools such as budgeting. forecasting. strategy. and negotiation—skills she later found useful in thinking about teams and human organization.

When asked about durable skills in STEM, she ranked three.. First was metacognition—continually checking whether actions are leading toward intended goals. and also considering how those actions affect other team members working toward the same outcome.. Second were question-asking and group problem-solving skills. grounded in the idea that real environments reward sharing knowledge rather than simply performing the role of the person who already has the answers.. Third was the sometimes overlooked ability to write clearly and grammatically. which she said helps people stand out and communicate with precision.

The book also addresses how teams can fail even when they are noisy.. Elkins-Tanton said communications matter. and that silence can be an alarm rather than a sign that things are fine—because if a part of the team is not speaking up. it may be a sign they are in trouble or unable to contribute effectively.. She contrasted that with a different danger: teams that remain active and talking but still move too slowly. repeatedly encountering problems.

She described an example involving an engineering team building new software for a mission to orbit the moon.. On a green-yellow-red health scale. she said the team had been “yellow” for about six months. with setbacks stacking one after another.. When the team looked deeper. structural and personnel issues emerged. including constrained resources and a bully—after which. she said. a concise lesson captured the reality: if a team is yellow for six months. it is “really red.”

For Elkins-Tanton, the question of who can speak up is central.. As a professor observing early-career scientists and engineers. she said the most important way to catch problems early is to ensure the most junior people on a team can speak and be heard respectfully.. She argued that while many teams expect junior members to be quiet. those junior members are often the people directly doing the work—writing code. turning wrenches. and noticing when something is wrong.

Her best advice for people trying to build collaborative teams draws from how people develop over time.. She said the process begins with how individuals think about themselves, then grows into learning how to interact successfully.. She also pointed to an expanding reality in science and technology: many of the biggest questions can only be answered by interdisciplinary teams. making it essential to learn how to work well with others in different disciplines and cultures of expertise.

In the end. the Psyche mission’s late-night thruster challenge—and the disciplined way it was handled—offers a clear message for scientific workplaces: technical readiness depends on human systems.. When teams can listen. share responsibility. and surface problems early. even a countdown anomaly does not have to become a breakdown.. That. Elkins-Tanton argues. is the kind of readiness that can be built well before any rocket ever leaves the pad—something Misryoum readers can carry into their own technical and scientific communities.

Psyche mission leadership cold-gas thruster NASA spacecraft operations STEM team building metacognition leadership planetary science management high-pressure teamwork