City officials will proudly present the Key to the City to another Vineland Hometown Hero, Mario Romero, on Thursday, April 4, in City Council Chambers beginning at 5:30 p.m.
Romero recently gained national recognition as part of the team at Houston-based Intuitive Machines who designed and built the Nova-C Lander “Odysseus,” which recently became the first U.S. vehicle to land on the surface of the moon since 1972.
As the Assembly Integration and Test Engineer, Mario was involved in testing individual components and ultimately building the vehicle from the ground up. He also helped name the vehicle in drawing inspiration from Homers epic poem Odyssey and its Greek hero Odysseus, King of Ithaca.
Romero has also worked for NASA as a spacewalk instructor/diver and served the country as an elite Navy Seal.
He is a graduate of Vineland High School and attended Rowan University prior to joining the Navy. After completing his service, he began studying Astrophysics and Astronomy at San Diego Mesa College, then transferred to Columbia University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Pure Mathematics and Astrophysics.
From there he attended graduate school at the University of Houston where he earned a master’s degree in Systems Engineering.
