Meet Dr. Ave Kludze Jr.: The first Ghanaian and African to command a NASA spacecraft in Orbit

By the time most people from Hohoe, a quiet town in Ghana's Volta Region, had settled into daily routines, Ave K. P. Kludze Jr. was at a NASA mission control centre, operating a spacecraft orbiting hundreds of miles above the Earth. It was a moment that defied every expectation of geography, circumstance, and the ambitions of a boy who once dismantled neighbours' televisions just to understand how things worked.

Dr. Ave Kludze Jr. is a Ghanaian-American aerospace engineer and senior NASA Spacecraft Systems Engineer. He is widely recognised as the first Ghanaian and possibly the first African to command and control a spacecraft in orbit from a NASA mission control centre. His story is one of the most extraordinary in the history of African achievement in science and technology.

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Kludze was born in 1966 in Hohoe, Volta Region, into a family with deep roots in the law. His father, Anselmus Kludze, served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana, while his mother, Comfort Brempong, worked with the Bank of Ghana. Family expectations were clear: Ave would follow his father into law.

Growing up in Dansoman-Sahara, a suburb of Accra, Ave was fascinated by how things worked. His parents feared leaving him alone at home because he might dismantle the radio. At friends' houses, he quietly took apart televisions. A childhood visit to the Accra airport, where he watched aircraft take off, ignited a lifelong fascination with aviation. His dream of becoming a pilot was halted by vision requirements, but he redirected his energy toward engineering.

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In the late 1980s, Kludze left to the United States with a high school diploma from Adisadel College in Cape Coast and A-levels from Swedru Secondary School. He enrolled at Rutgers University in New Jersey and earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. His original plan was to return to Ghana and develop solar technologies for his country.

"I never did dream of working for NASA," he told CNN. "I admired what they did, but it never did cross my mind. I did not see how a kid like me could work for NASA."

In 1995, NASA offered him a position. He accepted, and everything changed.

Spacecraft command and control is not a passive role. It requires extraordinary technical precision, deep knowledge of complex systems, and the ability to make critical decisions in real time. Kludze went on to command missions including ACE, SAMPEX, GRO, and the CALIPSO environmental satellite in 2006, a joint NASA-CNES mission to study clouds and aerosols. In total, he controlled at least five distinct spacecraft in orbit.

His competence earned him the responsibility to train new engineers in spacecraft command, a remarkable vote of confidence for someone who arrived in the United States with only a high school diploma a decade earlier.

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Kludze is a prolific inventor. For his master's degree at Johns Hopkins University, he designed the Human Locator System, or HuLos, a miniaturised device intended to locate any person on Earth using satellite communication and GPS. Its envisioned uses included finding missing children, tracking the elderly, and locating stolen vehicles.

In 2004, Kludze co-developed the Extravehicular Activity Infrared Camera (EVA IR) for astronauts on spacewalks. The camera detected cracks in the Shuttle's Thermal Protection System, designed after the Columbia disaster in 2003. He later joined the NASA Engineering and Safety Center as a systems engineering expert.

Kludze also wrote multiple computer programs still used at the Goddard Space Flight Center to control spacecraft.

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NASA recognised Kludze with three major awards in a short period: the NASA Superior Accomplishment Award, the US Sapphire Award, and the NASA Award for Outstanding Performance.

His academic record includes a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University, a Master of Science in Systems Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and a Doctorate in Systems Engineering from George Washington University. He has also served as an adjunct and visiting professor in engineering and cybersecurity at the University of Maryland College and George Mason University.

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In recent years, Kludze has worked on long-term strategy as a senior technical advisor in NASA's Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy. He led initiatives such as NASA's Quantum Strategy, the Mars Transportation Assessment Study, and the interagency Hypersonic Study, which explored vehicles capable of transporting passengers from Accra to New York in under two hours. He has also contributed to the US President's Space Exploration Vision for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

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Dr. Kludze's journey is extraordinary not only for what he achieved but also for where he started. From a curious child in Dansoman-Sahara to commanding spacecraft in orbit, he demonstrates that with determination, intellectual courage, and curiosity, boundaries can be broken. He did not just reach for the stars. From a mission control room in Maryland, he flew them.