Alumni Spotlight: Barry Tobias '98

Meet Barry Tobias ’98, a NASA Flight Controller. After graduating from Indian Springs, Barry attended Washington University in St. Louis, earning a bachelors and masters in mechanical engineering with a minor in computer science.

We recently caught up with Barry about his professional journey and his favorite things from his time at Indian Springs, including Scholar’s Bowl, Dr. LaCasse’s physics bus, ultimate frisbee, Buc Buc, and more!

What is your current job title and what are your main responsibilities?

I am a NASA Orion EECOM (Emergency, Environmental, and COnsumables Manager) Flight Controller. I support the EECOM console in Mission Control and am responsible for the Life Support and Thermal systems onboard the Orion spacecraft. For those who remember “Apollo 13” (Tom Hanks's 1995 movie), when the crew calls down "Houston, we have a problem," and the nerdy Clint Howard is the one having the problem...that's me. My one-liner is "I keep the crew alive; not always happy, but alive." I've been at NASA for 23 years: the first 11 years I spent doing this for the International Space Station (ISS) and the last 12 for the Orion spacecraft.

Currently NASA is on a push to return and stay on the moon and win the modern-day space race against China. To do this we are working with a couple companies who will be building the lunar landers that will go down to the surface, but to get the crew to cislunar space (the moon’s neighborhood), we send them in the Orion spacecraft. I've been a part of this project in some form or fashion for about 17 years. Many of those were spent helping to design the spacecraft systems and interfaces bringing to the table the crews' and operators' perspective. As we got closer to flight, my group and I followed the vehicle's development and testing, learning how the spacecraft works and talks to us. Then transforming that knowledge into procedures and Flight Rules that govern how we operate the craft. Rolling that into crew classes to teach the astronauts how the system works and more importantly, what they needed to know (or not know) to live in the vehicle. This all then culminates in flying the mission and bringing the crew back home to us and their families.

Do it because you love it. Maybe you want to help make humanity a multi-planetary species, maybe you love exploration, or maybe you just love things that go fast with big flames shooting out of it. Whatever the reason, you need to love the desire to do it. This industry is not one in which you can do it just because it's a job and pays the bills. "Space is hard"…we're working on systems that have thousands of pieces that have to all work right, and any one of them not meeting its need can result in a catastrophic end to the mission and loss of crew. There are no guarantees, but it's the love we have in our job that fuels us through months of late nights, through 8-hour long meetings hashing out the minute detail of far-fetched multi-failure scenarios, and lots of paperwork. You've got to love it.

The first would be having a fundamental understanding of physics. I've lost count of how many times I've been in meetings listening to some of the smartest people in their field give a presentation with graphs and tables and lots of data, but their story just doesn't pass the sniff check. There are plenty of times when I get schooled (this is rocket science after all), but I've found those that simply have a solid foundation of physics fundamentals are the ones that see through the complexity and figure out a path through.

The second skill would be that of respect. Like any major project, I work in teams ranging from 4 to 100+ people. You won't necessarily like them all, but respecting them is key to team success.

Lastly, I find the ability to see across multiple issues, multiple projects, and how they relate and integrate with each other is a very useful skill. Being able to see both the details and the big picture is crucial and seeing outside of the silo of a specific task is an invaluable skill.

I've been lucky enough to do some cool things. I've climbed into Space Shuttles, Space Station modules, spent over 4800 hours on-console in Mission Control. I've travelled to Germany, I've been to Moscow several times, presented a paper in Dubai, and watched a rocket launch from an adjacent launch pad literally sitting underneath a moon rocket. Although the 8-year-old Barry wouldn't believe it, I've gotten to work with and befriend many astronauts. Having said all that, if I had to choose, I would narrow it down to two accomplishments. The first was being the lead flight controller for the installation and operations of the Regenerative Life Support Systems (water and urine processors) onboard the Space Station. Within seven months, I led a team that started with zero knowledge of the systems to successfully working with the Shuttle and Station crews to get the systems installed on Station, overcome numerous initial system failures to get them operating well enough to be able to allow the Space Station go from a crew of three to a crew of six, which allowed for a significant increase in the amount of research (the core mission of Station) that could be done onboard. Due to this, I was honored with being presented the Silver Snoopy, an award given out by the Astronaut office.

The second is the Artemis II mission. I had the privilege of being the lead Ascent/Entry EECOM, which meant I was on console during the launch and landing of the mission that returned humanity to the moon. What made this even more special was working with the crew and other flight controllers over three years to develop how we do things. We literally started with a blank page and by the end we were such a well-oiled machine doing something amazing. Not only was it the mission that I am proud of, but it was the relationships we created as a team to do what we did.

As other spotlighted alumni have said, there is no “typical day.” Some days are packed with non-stop meetings with my engineering counterparts evaluating analyses or test data, meeting with our coders to discuss how to fix or improve onboard software, meetings with the program manager accepting risk or convincing him to spend a lot of money for something I want, or with people within my direct team to develop flight products. Some days involve teaching crew in a classroom or in the mockup. Some rare days I may find myself in our big swimming pool in a spacesuit working out ways for crew to egress an upside-down vehicle in an emergency. Then there are sim days, when we sit on console, crew is in their simulator, and the instructor team throws so many failures at us that by the time the simulation is done, we're simply spent. That’s what makes this job so much fun—it is constantly different.

The people! I have very vivid memories of spending time in hacky sack circles, sitting around outside chatting with friends, and hours and hours spent in the Hut doing plays, musicals, and set designs. Memories of playing ping pong with Mr. Lantrip during free periods and creating the biannual Barry-Mike Tournament (he won and has the trophy to prove it). Buc-Buc in the dorm circle. Being tossed in the lake so many times that that Ms. Apolinsky just accepted I’d show up to her algebra class dripping wet and Coach Van Horn setting me up with a rotation of extra gym clothes to change into. Scholar bowl trips…choir concerts…watching the World Series with classmates as we spent an evening dissecting pigs prepping for a biology test the next day…it really is hard to not just list everything as favorite memories. What all these had in common was the people and relationships formed.  We didn't sit around drinking coffee watching other people's adventures on TikTok; we made our own adventures.

The easy go-to answer is that I've been driving the physics bus for the last 30 years. Thanks to Dr. LaCasse, I've kept it to minor fender benders but haven't fallen off yet. However, Springs's education style is far deeper than just one class. Learning how to deal with high expectations (external and internal) with deadlines that are simply not far enough in the future from Dr. Cooper...learning how to BS (I mean embellish) almost anything when writing a paper from Ms. Martin...learning how to work with authority figures you simply didn't mesh with from Isa Delgado (don’t worry, we’re good now)...all of these experiences are constantly resurfacing to help aid in life in general. ISS is proud of the Learning through Living motto, but in many ways, Springs also embodies the idea of Living from Learning.

I would like to add a special thank you to Ms. Apolinsky for all extra time she spent with me helping to grasp basic algebra. I needed the extra help to make it up that first rung of my career ladder and she never hesitated in providing that help.

My parents were not always happy about it, but even as a day-student I basically lived on campus. I was a founding member of the Ultimate Frisbee team. I was in Scholars Bowl all five years and have so many great memories of tournaments, road trips, and countless hours studying in hotel rooms with the team the night before a tournament. To a lesser level, I enjoyed being on the soccer team and keeping the bench warm for the real players, as well as co-founding and co-presiding over the Diet Coke Club.

Living so far from campus makes it hard to stay as engaged as I would want. However, little things help keep the connection going; consistent donations to the annual fund, reading the bi-annual magazine cover to cover, keeping up with Springs's socials, keeping in touch with other classmates, and always visiting campus when in town.

If you're near campus, reach out to the school to help with events, talks with students, etc. For most of us that are not nearby, just keeping in touch. If you don't stay in touch, you'll never know what ways to be involved will surface. Also, keep spreading the word about Springs. The more people hear about the wonderful school, the more we can help keep it filled with amazing students.

Free time with two young kids?! These days, my free time is spent trying (or just wishing) to get back to endurance sports and reading as I used to do a lot of prior to the kiddos showing up. I do enjoy decorating birthday cakes for my boys, and on occasion I’ll even get some helpful advice from Isa Delgado (I told you we’re good now).

Life is too variable that I never liked this question. That's probably why I'm an engineer and not an entrepreneur. I'm actually at a cross-roads career wise where I'm trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.  Can I get back to you in five?

In my non-work life, I look forward to seeing how my two boys (seven- and nine-year-old) will grow up and really look forward to watching my wife (Tali) grow her business and supporting her, as she has me in my career.

It's great to have goals, it's great to create a plan, but the best advice I can give someone is to just do what you love.  You'll be surprised how many jobs can be filled by people from all backgrounds. So take the classes you enjoy, read books on subjects you like, and go after challenges that inspire you. Enjoying what you're doing is the key.