Above: Mario Romero speaks to the crowd after receiving the Key to the City on Thursday at Vineland City Hall. Right: Cruze Santiago, 6, wore a spacesuit Thursday to meet Mario Romero, a friend of Cruze’s father, Angel.
JOHN RUSSO photos, Staff Writer
Cruze Santiago, 6, wore a spacesuit Thursday to meet Mario Romero, a friend of Cruze’s father, Angel.
VINELAND — A few Ds and Fs couldn’t keep Mario Romero from shooting for the stars.
He held up his high school transcript for the 70 or so supporters at City Hall on Thursday night. Right there on that transcript were some pretty bad grades. It drew a laugh from the crowd.
“I think it comes out to a 1.7 GPA, honestly,” he said. “It was rough. I had a hard time in school. I didn’t really have many people in my family or relatives that went on to graduate college. So I was trying to figure this out on my own, and I had a hard time doing it.”
He asked the crowd, did it define kids like that? There was a resounding “no!”
Romero is proof that anyone can dream big. His dreams were so big, this planet couldn’t contain them.
For that, the 41-year-old was given the Key to the City on Thursday night for his contributions to space exploration.
Romero was part of a team at Houston-based Intuitive Machines that designed and built the Nova-C Lander Odysseus. He previously worked for NASA as a spacewalk instructor/diver.
Odysseus launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Feb. 15. The lander reached the moon’s south pole Feb. 22, where it became the first American vehicle on its surface since 1972.
“What you’ve done is give us an opportunity to congratulate another one of our children from Vineland,” Mayor Anthony Fanucci said in a video message. “This is the highest honor anyone could ever get in my position as mayor and from the wonderful city of Vineland.”
Romero was joined by members of his family, including his parents, Jenny Colon and Angel Romero; his wife, Chelsea, 31; and their 3-month-old son, Taíno. All four received gifts from the city, and Romero was awarded numerous certificates and proclamations by the city, county and from state Sen. Michael Testa, R-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic.
“I’ve been away from Vineland for like 20 years, but Vineland is still home,” Romero said at the end of his speech. “Thank you all for this wonderful recognition. I’m deeply humbled and grateful for this entire community.”
Mario Romero, a Vineland native who helped build the first U.S. vehicle to land on the moon since 1972, will be awarded a Key to the City on April 4.
‘A wondrous child’
Romero was born and raised in Vineland. He attended Vineland Public Schools from kindergarten until he graduated from Vineland High School in 2002. He attended Rowan University, and one year into college joined the U.S. Navy as a SEAL until 2012.
Romero talked about becoming a SEAL, including the rigors of training and his experience with “hell week,” an operational training session that lasted 5½ days in the cold and dampness, operating on less than four hours of sleep.
Romero traded in his rucksack and returned to school as a 30-year-old, an incredibly difficult decision, he said. He studied astrophysics and astronomy at San Diego Mesa College in California, then transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in pure math and astrophysics.
He got a job at NASA in Houston as a spacewalk trainer and diver. He worked in a 6.2 million gallon pool at NASA, which simulated micro gravity and included a replica of the International Space Station.
He graduated from the University of Houston-Clear Lake with a masters in systems engineering, and in 2022 he was hired as an assembly integration and test engineer at Intuitive Machines. He began work on Odysseus, which Romero named after winning a contest among coworkers.
Romero is in the application process to become an astronaut. That submission deadline is in a couple of weeks. If he is selected, a trip into space can become a reality.
He’s always had that dream since he was a little kid fascinated by outer space. He referenced his love for the 1986 science fiction flick “Flight of the Navigator,” about a 12-year-old boy abducted by aliens.
“It allows me to retain that childlike curiosity,” he said. “I feel like I can stay young and stay curious. The wonderment of the universe has always had this childhood effect on me. Like I get to think about what’s out there that we don’t know.
“That keeps me young, and I wanted that after so much time with the SEAL teams where you’re kind of delving into the seedier underbellies of society. I kind of wanted to step away from that and return to a more joyful existence, and I think space, astronomy, astrophysics have brought me back to being a wondrous child.”
Mayor Anthony Fanucci congratulated Romero and the Houston-based Intuitive Machines aerospace team for reaching the moon Thursday via the Odysseus, the company's 14-foot-tall Nova-C class Lunar IM-1 Lander.
‘Up for the challenge’
Angel Santiago remembered moving into a Vineland neighborhood as a skinny Puerto Rican kid with an interest in punk music and 1990s fashion. He met Romero, another skinny Puerto Rican with similar tastes, and the two became close friends.
“Before the SEALs, before NASA, before Intuitive Machines, this man had a budding, small but successful career as lead singer to a local punk rock band,” Santiago told the crowd.
Santiago was one of the handful of speakers giving praise to Romero for his accomplishments. Romero told Santiago if he was going to talk about him, he’d better turn it into a playful roast.
Santiago is now a teacher in Gloucester Township, Camden County, and he recently had Romero show up to talk to his students. On Thursday, Santiago had his 6-year-old son, Cruze, with him. Cruze, whose favorite part of space are the rocket ships, was dressed in a spacesuit and excited to meet Romero.
“I think all boys are intuitively interested in the cosmos, and then I’m like, coincidentally, I have a friend who works for NASA, so I’ve been trying to show (Cruze) some pictures and show him ordinary people can do extraordinary things,” Santiago said.
Santiago said Romero’s story wasn’t just a message to kids but also a message to teachers to give kids who may be struggling a chance.
“I’m a teacher, so to see a kid who wasn’t the greatest student accomplish his dreams, you couldn’t be more proud,” he said.
Romero said he didn’t hang around with the best crowd growing up. It wasn’t until he got to high school that he met Santiago and his friends. Romero credited those friends for elevating him to their level.
“They inspired me to stay on that track, keep doing good for the sake of doing good.” Romero said.
With a table full of recognition sitting next to him, Romero knew there were more and greater things he hopes to accomplish. And he hoped his message inspires others, from kids wanting to learn to adults looking for motivation to make a change in life to chase a dream.
“I’m deeply humbled, obviously. I’m very grateful to this community. But I view it as a responsibility,” Romero said. “Now this is a challenge, really. You can do more, you can advocate more, you can lobby more, you can give back in more ways. It’s going to be taxing, but I’m always up for the challenge.”
PHOTOS Vineland's Mario Romero gets Key to the City
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Above: Mario Romero speaks to the crowd after receiving the Key to the City on Thursday at Vineland City Hall. Right: Cruze Santiago, 6, wore a spacesuit Thursday to meet Mario Romero, a friend of Cruze’s father, Angel.
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