Courtesy photo Alpena native Corey Brooker poses for a photo in front of the Artemis 2 which he worked on as an employee of Lockheed Martin. Brooker said the launch to the moon is the byproduct of decades of hard work.

ALPENA – On April 12, 1981, the first space shuttle lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. At the exact same time in Alpena, Ella White elementary school fourth grader Corey Brooker watched in anticipation as the shuttle launched, and his dreams took flight from there.

When Artemis 2 launched on Wednesday, it was the culmination of decades of hard work for Brooker, and a dream he had as a boy, come true now as a man.

“The dream started watching the space shuttle launch for the first time, I was sitting in my fourth-grade classroom at Ella White, and that’s when I got the bug,” Brooker said. “I have been chasing that dream ever since.”

Originally, Brooker had dreams of becoming an astronaut; after realizing how difficult it would be to accomplish that, he switched his focus to how the rockets work and how he could contribute.

“I wanted to become an astronaut, but as I got older, I realized how challenging it would be to get that job so I wanted to at least be able to help build the hardware our astronauts fly in,” Brooker said. “So, I pursued a degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan and received my bachelor’s and master’s degree there in 1994 and 1995.”

After graduating from the University of Michigan, Brooker relocated to Colorado to accept a position with the aerospace and defense contractor who designed and constructed the rocket destined for the moon.

“I left Michigan and moved to Colorado to begin my career in aerospace, and it’s been 30 years since I made that decision to join Lockheed Martin,” Brooker added.

Throughout his career Brooker has had the opportunity to witness many launches, however, this one was special, he said.

“Being in this business for 30 years I have seen lots of rocket launches including the uncrewed Artemis One launch,” Brooker said. “With this being a crewed mission, the entire crowd, whether you were a part of the program directly, a family member or just a bystander, I think we were all crying on the causeway at some point.”

Despite the success of the Artemis Two launch, Brooker and his colleagues understand the 10-day mission is not over yet.

“That was just the launch. We have nine more days in space as we take the crew around the moon,” Brooker explained. “If everything lines up, they will travel to about 250,000 miles, which is about 4,000 miles past the moon, the furthest any human has gone from the earth.”

When asked what this mission meant to him and his career, he had to fight back the tears as he explained the personal significance of what has been accomplished.

“It’s an emotional question for sure. It’s a culmination of 30 years of my career chasing human space flight,” Brooker said. “Finally, being able to send four crew members on a historic mission to the moon, something we have not done in over 50 years, it’s special.”

Brooker is hopeful that somewhere in Alpena, a child who watched the launch, wants to follow in his footsteps or take it further.

“This being the Artemis generation, what I really hope is that there is a fourth grader sitting somewhere in Alpena that sees the launch and says, that’s what I want to go do.”

Brooker was not the only person with Alpena ties who had the opportunity to witness Artemis Two ascend into space.

Alpena County Commissioner John Kozlowski was in Florida at just the right time and was also able to watch the launch, although not from a vantage point as close as Brooker’s

“My parents have a condo in Cocoa, Florida which is directly across from the NASA assembly building at the Kennedy Space Center,” Kozlowski said. “Due to unexpected circumstances my stay ended up being longer, I got back to the condo about a half hour before Artemis Two launched. I was extremely grateful I was here to witness that.”

From Kozlowski’s vantage point he had an awe-inspiring view as Artemis Two rose above the clouds. He said the power and sound of the rocket didn’t hit him until after it had significantly cleared the launch tower.

“From my parent’s back porch to the assembly building is about three miles across the water, I could see the launch site, and as it took off you could see a glow and a lot of smoke, followed by one solid stream of smoke,” Kozlowski said. “It took about a minute before you could really hear the rumbling from the rockets taking off.”

The last time the United States went to the Moon was in December 1972 during the Apollo 17 mission. As of April 2026, this remains the most recent crewed lunar landing and the last time humans traveled beyond low Earth orbit.

“To know that NASA is working towards getting back to the moon, 50 years after our last trip, and we are at the point where we are using these vehicles to potentially make that return, it’s an awesome thing to think about,” Kozlowski said.