I met an astronaut...

In my former life, I used to work at NASA-JSC... was a engineer working on shuttle payloads. I worked closely with many astronauts. In my experience, they are all very personable and down to earth.

Since they are "embassadors" of the space program they all have incredible PR skills!

Here a summary of the last mission I worked on before leaving to do other things.....

http://www.astronautix.com/flights/sts49.htm

 

Very cool stuff! I've always loved the stuff NASA has done and watching shuttle launches has been my favorite being that I live in Orlando. I'm probably going to the launch tomorrow and going to take some pics (if it doesn't rain!). It was a dream of mine to be a military pilot and possibly go in the shuttle, but none of those will ever happen.

Simon, I had no idea you were an engineer with NASA (I knew you said Mech Engineering, though). My dad was contracted by them in the mid-90s to do some stuff (can't remember what), but he traveled there daily from here in Orlando. You really did leave and do other stuff!

 

Great thread, Ryan! Best wishes to you in your future flight endeavors...

That's cool, Simon...sounds like a real dream job...the next best thing to actually being an astronaut.

Was just down at The Cape a couple of weeks ago on vacation...

Had the opportunity to meet both Scott Carpenter and Jon McBride...that was a real treat! Carpenter was mainly there for his book signing "For Spacious Skies".

My fondest memory of the Shuttle program was having the opportunity of being sponsored to see the very first Shuttle launch (Crippen & Young) of Columbia (RIP) / STS-1 back in spring of 1981 -- and was able to view it from the causeway where the press booth / bleachers and clock is set up at. It was originally scrubbed the day or so before due to a fuel cell malfunction, but it launched the next attempt. What an experience that was!

I dreamed of becoming an astronaut growing up...wish I'd have stuck with the dream...

 

Ironic.

 

Ha! Didn't even realize I wrote that!

Was fun for 2 years... then the shine wore off for me. Pretty much the story of my life as far as work goes. I have a short attention span. I'm on "career" #4 currently!

 

Met Buzz Aldrin once, very interesting and personable. That was some ballsy stuff man, landing on the moon. He and Neil had huge big brass ones.

 

KEEP IN TOUCH

If he had an e-mail address, send him one soon. If you think calling him would be ok, do it.

I've made great connections that way. I'm going down the business route, but you have no idea how important they are in any field. Becoming good friends or keeping in touch with him could change (or put an after burner on) your career.

 

I met Richard Branson who is not an astronaut but has launched the world's first space line and will probably become an astronaut very soon

Very personable guy also, a true leader