I posted this today on a new internal blog at Goddard and thought that you all might be interested…
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I didn’t want to work at Goddard. Well, ok, that’s not entirely accurate. I mean, I guess if you don’t know a place exists, you can’t decide whether or not you want to work there, right?
I’m 28. I grew up with Star Wars and the space shuttle, and for as long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated by the idea of spaceflight. Manned spaceflight. I wanted to work in Houston or in Florida, because I wanted to work for NASA, and that’s where NASA was located! Right?
I’m not sure that I really appreciated all that NASA had to offer until I spent a summer at Ames Research Center in the NASA Academy program. It was there that I began to appreciate fully many of the areas other than manned flight in which NASA is involved. At the end of the summer, I decided to apply for co-op positions across the agency. Even then, if I’d been offered a position at JSC or KSC, I would’ve taken it. Instead, I was offered positions at DFRC and GSFC and accepted the one here in Flight Dynamics.
So when was I first proud about supporting Earth Observation, Astronomy, and/or Space Physics? I’d say it was as a co-op, when I was supporting re-entry planning for the TRMM spacecraft. Not to say that planning the demise of an earth-observing spacecraft is a source of pride… but I was working on a mission that was being credited with making huge improvements in areas such as hurricane prediction. It wasn’t manned spaceflight… but somehow along the way, it became more rewarding. Now I was working on missions that directly and tangibly saved lives!
When I was graduating from Virginia Tech, I didn’t apply for jobs anywhere else. I wanted to return to Goddard, to be part of our mission to explore and understand the universe. In addition to TRMM, I’ve already had a chance to work on UARS, GOES, Aura, ST5, SDO, and LRO… real missions collecting (or soon to collect) a wealth of real data about our universe. How cool is that?
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Rivers, I think that’s really cool! I started my career at NASA as a coop as well. Something that was really helpful when I was looking for career options at NASA was the biographies that the current coops write. I applied to Johnson Space Center so I can only talk to that centers coop program, but if anyone is interested in learning more about what coops do at JSC, you can visit this link: http://coop.jsc.nasa.gov/index.html
I’d personally love to hear from others throughout the agency, particularly the coops and interns, regarding their experiences!
April 25th, 2008 at 2:49 am
So Rivers, do you still have a location preference, are you fine at Ames, or do you still look toward the south?
April 25th, 2008 at 3:54 am
John: I’m very happy at Goddard, but that’s not to say that I couldn’t be happy somewhere else too!
April 29th, 2008 at 3:08 am
Rivers: “Where’s Goddard?” was the first thing I thought when I was introduced to the engineer who gave me my first job at NASA! (Much less glamorous than NASA Academy, by the way. I worked for free before I managed to land a paying gig as a co-op.) JSC and KSC definitely get the spotlight, but as you point out, there is much more to space exploration than manned missions. Moon landings and space shuttles pulled me in - I mean, really, what kid doesn’t want to go to Space Camp? But once I learned how much is out there to be explored via spacecraft, I never gave manned spaceflight a second glance.
Earth observing missions are my favorites because they can affect people’s daily lives. I have a friend at Purdue who studied agriculture. His master’s research used remote sensing from spacecraft to detect weeds in farm fields and, in turn, allow farmers to use pesticides more efficiently. Who would think that spacecraft could be used to make farming more efficient? Think of all the people that affects, directly and indirectly. Fewer pesticides, healthier food, better environment. It’s pretty amazing.
April 29th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
I feel much the same way, Rivers.
I think I would like to post my thoughts on how I got started at NASA/GSFC
May 1st, 2008 at 4:10 pm
You aren’t the only one, I had never even heard of Marshall Space Flight Center before I accepted my job. And the stereotypes about Alabama didn’t exactly help my expectations about the area, so I was a little worried about working here at first. After being here for almost a year though, it’s great.