The 2006 Thornapple Kellogg High School graduate is a manufacturing engineer focused on designing and building of space crafts and propulsion processes. His boss, Jeff Bezos, has been in the news a lot about his dream of creating a road to space encouraging future generations to establish a million people living and working in space at Blue Origin.
Morley currently spends most of his time supporting propulsion for the New Glenn rocket but has worked across several areas at Blue Origin including making direct contributions toward the launch of the New Shepard Rocket carrying Bezos above the Karman line and into space.
“I like the idea of building something that encourages and helps others achieve a permanent presence in space. I think that’s a cool mark to leave, especially for the future.”
Jason is excited about the growth at Blue Origin and the potential careers for anyone interested in the space industry. “We need more minds, more Einstein’s, more people exploring creative ways to make space travel easier, more capable and more affordable. I want to motivate others to explore, enjoy the unknown, find the joy in looking into things that are not discovered and then find ways to tap what they find to create or reinvent the wheel. If we don’t discover a way to make space travel possible now, it will only get more difficult to achieve in the future as resources become limited.”
Morley was one of the early employees hired at Blue Origin and it’s obvious from talking to him to know how much he loves what he’s doing. “I love the thought that Earth is this beautiful blue dot in the middle of our galaxy. Exploring and seeing what else is out there, for me, is the most incredible part because we only really have what we can see or experience here on Earth,” he said.
He's excited about the history-making potential of his job. “Our goal is to launch rockets successfully and land them so the rockets can be used over again. It’s one thing to launch a rocket, it’s something else to get it back, and reuse it,” he said.
Morley has always had an inquisitive mind. It led him to a manufacturing engineering degree from Western Michigan University. He also credits his father for supporting, encouraging him and introducing him to space.
“My father encouraged me to learn about how things work, tearing things apart, breaking them down to their most basic parts and understanding fundamentally, how components work on their own, so you know how they work as a whole.”
He said his father would never be upset when he had something torn apart but didn’t know how to get it back together. “He was the most patient father, amazing role model and hero I've ever had.”
His father also introduced him to space. “He and I would take blankets and pillows to the flat roof of my childhood home to watch for meteor showers and other phenomena and talk about the amazing planets and constellations. He was also a helicopter pilot and would take me to work or other aerospace events which intrigued me every time.”
Morely moved to Thornapple Kellogg Schools when he was in middle school. He gives his middle and high school teachers credit for really cultivating his passion for engineering and helping him see what he wanted to do as a career. “I think I always kind of knew I wanted to do something with space, but it wasn’t until I was in high school that my teachers really helped me realize what I could do.”
Advice to High School Students: “Study, study, study. And, if there’s something you don’t know, don’t be afraid of reaching out to teachers and asking for help.”
Best Thing About TK? “It was definitely the teachers. They made it fun and helped me realize what I really wanted to do.”
Favorite Book: ‘The Space Barons’ and the “Elon Musk’ book.
If you could have one superpower which, would you want? “Teleportation. I would like to hop myself to other parts of the galaxy and back.”
Favorite Show: “Star Trek” (go figure right) and “Ted Lasso”
Travel Bucket List: “New Zealand, Asian Islands, Tahiti. I really like to experience a lot of different places. I like to disconnect from everything and just live on the land. When I go hiking, I like the trail, but I really like making my own trail.”