On being a flight hardware engineer

Now I realize how lucky I was to come to work for NASA head-first as a Flight Hardware Engineer. I have the strangest feeling that after having been in that role here at NASA for 8 years, it's going to make everything else I encounter appear manageable.

Seriously. I didn't realize it till I took this new role in the ISS Program. As a flight hardware engineer, my day began with troubleshooting hardware or process issues, and ended with negotiations and often times late evenings or home work.

I had to be a diplomat across different organizations. Had to be a safety and quality engineer. Had to know flight hardware materials and testing processes, a little bit of design, and some engineering from disciplines I wasn't formally trained in.

Had to juggle budgets, had to juggle schedules. Had to explain them both. Had to negotiate for them both. Had to manage the contractor teams and deal with communication and team dynamics as a whole.

Sometimes I had to sit on console in Mission Control if a big task was planned. I had to make decisions for NASA and brief NASA leaders on critical hardware. Usually at the last minute.

Diplomat, engineer, project manager, team leader, what am I missing? And all of it was under tight schedules and tight resources. It was fun, but it was tough. There is no better training grounds for new NASA engineers than in JSC Engineering flight hardware. Seriously. It affects you in more ways than you know.

I am sure my new role will bring different challenges. I have to admit I like starting my day with no real crisis to have to fix. Already I'm learning about center and agency-level functions, and meeting our International Partners. So it's a different role and I'm adjusting a little to how different it really is. It's different in a good way. Just different from what I've been used to for the last 8 years. I came here as a kid lucky and excited to have my dream job, and then I busted my butt (and loved it) for 6 years. The last 2 have been less fun. Just stagnant since Engineering scattered the biomedical projects away.

I will physically move to my office in 4S on Monday March 2. I have been going back and forth between my current office in Building 36 a few times a day. Every time I drive up to 4S, I think "yes, this is where I told myself I'd be sitting in 2009. Maybe I should have been specific about which FLOOR (astronaut office)." Every time I drive back to 36, I am already feeling a little nostalgic for Engineering. These buildings are where my family members sit (EA). They're out in the periphery of JSC. In the facilities, not the cubicles. They are in the machine shops, the ESTA labs, the simulators, the labs. They get it done. I think those might have been the best years of my life in Houston. But they've been my only years. Maybe 8 years from now I will think of these next 8 years as the best. Or at least just different in a good way.