The other Pinoy on the Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity’s official name) mission is true island-born, raised in Modesta Village, “a suburb just outside Marikina,” by his parents, Dr. Ludevico Manglapus from Cagayan Valley and Consuelo Garcia Manglapus from Leyte, who were both graduates of the University of Sto. Tomas.
Lloyd Manglapus has worked at NASA for 12 years and is the flight software technical lead and mission operations flight software operator of the Curiosity mission.
He graduated elementary and high school (class of 1987) from Marist School in Marikina and attended the University of Santo Tomas, majoring in Mathematics and Computer Science for two years before moving to the US.
He continued his studies at the University of Southern California and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science in 1993 and a Master of Science in Computer Science in 1996.
He met his wife Gilda, a graduate of the University of the Philippines Diliman, in the Philippines. They have one son, Jaellan.
