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Joshua Elston

Joshua Elston did not walk into his undergraduate research experience with a grand plan. He was a rising senior in aerospace engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, curious about the field but not yet sure where he fit within it. One summer changed everything!

In 2023, Elston joined ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Æƽâ°æÏÂÔØ's Summer Program for Undergraduate Research (SPUR), landing a position in the bioastronautics division of the Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. It was his first real exposure to the field of human spaceflight, a subject that had never appeared in any of his coursework.

"It really opened my eyes to some other potential avenues for work within aerospace," Elston said. "At that point I wasn't really drawn to any of the specific areas that had been covered in my undergraduate classes. This offered an avenue that really piqued my interest."

What followed reads less like a career plan and more like a series of the right conversations at the right moments, each one building on the last.

Through his SPUR experience, Elston had the opportunity to present his research at a conference, where he crossed paths with Dani Selva, a faculty member from Texas A&M's Department of Aerospace Engineering. Their conversation, sparked by overlapping research interests, eventually led Elston to reach out about graduate school. In August 2024, he began a master's program at Texas A&M's Systems Autonomy and Knowledge Lab, where his research focuses on human-autonomous agent collaboration and how to support astronauts as communication delays with Earth grow longer during deep space missions.

From there, a connection at NASA Ames Research Center in California landed him a NASA OSTEM internship at Johnson Space Center in Houston in fall 2025. There, he worked in the Human Health and Performance Directorate, supporting spacesuit fit and comfort evaluations.

Joshua expanded on his internship experience: "This summer, I interned with the Advanced Suit Team at NASA Johnson Space Center, supporting the development and execution of suited test series within vacuum chamber and gravity-offload test facilities. Over the course of my internship, I contributed firsthand to all phases of human-in-the-loop spacesuit testing, including test planning and documentation, crew training (including for members of the astronaut corps), test execution, and post-test analysis. These test series also provided opportunitiesÌýto collaborate with a number of teams across JSC as well as several of NASA'sÌýcommercialÌýpartners, giving me a more holistic understanding of the collective effort required to execute testing that will help enable future Artemis missions."

Joshua returned to NASA Johnson Space Center for another OSTEM internship over summer 2026. This time his position was within the spacesuits branch of the Engineering Directorate (officially as a space suit, portable life support and crew survival intern)! The group he joined for summer 2026 really liked his experience in the Human Health & Performance Directorate last fall. It was a great opportunity to build on that internship and gain experience with another organization within NASA JSC. Three years ago, he never would have imagined he would have the chance to work on a spacesuit at NASA.

"I wouldn't have known about the program at A&M without research," Elston said. "I wouldn't have reached out to the people I did at NASA. Everything has stemmed from that same starting point."

When he asked his section manager at JSC what made his application stand out, her answer was simple: he came recommended. The email chain that had begun with his CU advisor had quietly traveled all the way to Houston.

Belonging in the Lab

Elston is candid about the fact that stepping into a research environment as an undergraduate was not without its challenges. Surrounded by master's and PhD students who had spent years in their fields, he struggled at first with a sense of not quite belonging.

"Coming in as a rising senior, it was daunting to feel that I was making a contribution within their world," he said. "But it was really a credit to my mentors; they introduced me into that setting and gave me an opportunity to feel like the work I was doing was significant."

That lesson has stayed with him. In each new position since — graduate school, a summer internship, a fall internship — he has felt that initial wave of unfamiliarity. Each time, he says, it has passed.

"Getting the opportunity to participate in these research positions means that people have put confidence in you and trust you to make meaningful contributions," he said. "That's something that got instilled early through undergraduate research."

Eyes on the Horizon

Elston plans to complete his master's degree at Texas A&M before pursuing a career in human spaceflight, with his sights set on NASA Johnson Space Center or a role in commercial spaceflight with a company like Blue Origin. He is already building those connections, including a recent conversation over coffee with the lead Capcom for NASA's Artemis mission.

In a twist that surprised even him, his current NASA mentor turns out to be a fellow Buff: a ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Æƽâ°æÏÂÔØ alum who also worked as a bioastronautics research assistant during his undergraduate years.

"It's funny to see how everything has kind of fallen into place," Elston said. "Even though coming to Texas wasn't in my five-year plan, everything that stemmed from doing SPUR has resulted in me doing work that I'm passionate about and that excites me. I don't think I would have known that without that one summer."