Apollo 11 moon landing sparked El Paso astronaut Danny Olivas’ interest in space

El Pasoan Danny Olivas was just 4-years old when man landed on the moon. But it was the Apollo 11 mission that sparked an interest in space exploration.

As NASA marks the 50th Anniversary of the moon landing, Olivas looks to the future of space exploration.

Olivas is a forensic engineer and is working with a team at the University of Texas El Paso known as CASSMAR to determined what caused the space shuttle Columbia disaster on Feb. 1, 2003 that killed seven astronauts.

The Center for Advancement of Space Safety and Mission Assurance Reearch has two-thousand pounds of debris from the disaster.

Olivas told ABC-7’s Estela Casas, also a Burges High School and UTEP grad that “the future of space exploration is bright because it represents opportunity for humans to learn everything they can about a world they know so little about and for every second, minute, hour or day that we spend in that mindset we improve everyone’s life.”

Olivas is at UTEP to help celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission.