1 00:00:00,433 --> 00:00:02,969 What has been your favorite part about working at NASA? 2 00:00:02,969 --> 00:00:05,071 I think I like the excitement of what NASA 3 00:00:05,071 --> 00:00:09,442 technologies offer. The project I'm on right now in commercial supersonics, 4 00:00:09,476 --> 00:00:11,878 we're doing something revolutionary. 5 00:00:11,878 --> 00:00:15,582 We're enabling supersonic travel over land, which is currently not 6 00:00:15,582 --> 00:00:16,649 feasible. 7 00:00:16,649 --> 00:00:18,385 Meet 8 00:00:18,385 --> 00:00:19,953 Peggy 9 00:00:19,953 --> 00:00:21,521 Cornell 10 00:00:22,522 --> 00:00:23,523 What was your path to NASA? 11 00:00:23,523 --> 00:00:24,691 I started when I was young. 12 00:00:24,891 --> 00:00:27,260 Like most folks, I wanted to be an astronaut. 13 00:00:27,527 --> 00:00:31,464 So I worked toward that general goal. 14 00:00:31,898 --> 00:00:34,334 In fact, I worked in this facility - 15 00:00:34,334 --> 00:00:37,270 the Aero Acoustic Propulsion Lab. 16 00:00:37,270 --> 00:00:40,073 Behind me is the nozzle acoustic test rig that I spent 17 00:00:40,073 --> 00:00:42,142 many hours on as a technician. 18 00:00:42,142 --> 00:00:45,378 I've been here 28 years, so I've been 19 00:00:45,378 --> 00:00:47,881 in both aeronautics and space side of the house. 20 00:00:47,881 --> 00:00:50,383 What are you working on currently? 21 00:00:50,383 --> 00:00:52,819 We're working on lowering the sonic boom to a sonic thump. 22 00:00:52,819 --> 00:00:57,724 It would be equivalent to hearing a car door slam maybe 20 feet away. 23 00:00:57,724 --> 00:01:03,463 So allowing for that quieting technology, if you will, to be applied to an aircraft 24 00:01:03,897 --> 00:01:08,201 will allow for the supersonic travel, which creates the booms 25 00:01:08,768 --> 00:01:12,305 over land so that people aren't disturbed by it, by the sound. 26 00:01:12,605 --> 00:01:16,443 My project before this, we were working on 27 00:01:16,443 --> 00:01:20,080 electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, which I describe 28 00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:23,850 as air taxis, kind of like what you'd have with The Jetsons. 29 00:01:23,983 --> 00:01:26,219 So all revolutionary stuff. 30 00:01:26,219 --> 00:01:30,890 I'm also on X-57 building the first all electric aircraft for NASA. 31 00:01:30,890 --> 00:01:33,460 What advice would you give younger generations interested in a STEM career? To not give up, to persist. 32 00:01:33,460 --> 00:01:37,030 A lot of girls and even young boys think that they have 33 00:01:37,030 --> 00:01:40,233 to be really good at both math and science to get in a field like this, 34 00:01:41,101 --> 00:01:43,570 I had to take calculus more than once. 35 00:01:43,570 --> 00:01:46,306 I also immersed myself in the STEM fields. 36 00:01:46,306 --> 00:01:48,241 I became a student pilot. 37 00:01:48,241 --> 00:01:52,245 I started skydiving, all aerodynamic related activities. 38 00:01:52,479 --> 00:01:55,415 I joined the military to go for the T 39 00:01:55,415 --> 00:01:58,551 in STEM, the technical part, and I became a jet engine mechanic. 40 00:01:59,185 --> 00:02:01,554 So I worked on the KC 135 41 00:02:01,554 --> 00:02:04,324 aircraft for about nine years. 42 00:02:04,324 --> 00:02:05,692 What are some of your hobbies? 43 00:02:05,692 --> 00:02:06,626 So I have a lot of hobbies. 44 00:02:06,626 --> 00:02:09,295 Most of them are aviation centered. 45 00:02:09,429 --> 00:02:12,031 I've flown gliders, been on ultralights. 46 00:02:12,532 --> 00:02:18,171 I've paraglided off the side of Mount Haleakala in Maui. 47 00:02:18,171 --> 00:02:24,677 I started kayaking over Covid like a lot of people did, so kayaking is fun. 48 00:02:24,677 --> 00:02:26,846 What would you tell the 10-year-old version of yourself? 49 00:02:26,846 --> 00:02:29,349 Well, I kind of did that when I was around ten or 12 years old. 50 00:02:29,349 --> 00:02:31,518 I wrote myself a note and 51 00:02:31,818 --> 00:02:33,219 it said, Never give up. 52 00:02:33,219 --> 00:02:37,090 No matter what you do, no matter what your goals are, just don't give up. 53 00:02:37,190 --> 00:02:39,592 You'll hear that from a lot of people. Oh, don't give up. 54 00:02:39,592 --> 00:02:44,964 But it is truly a very important mantra to go by ... 55 00:02:45,198 --> 00:02:47,767 If you see roadblocks go around them. 56 00:02:47,767 --> 00:02:48,902 Who or what inspires you? 57 00:02:48,902 --> 00:02:52,739 My dad died when I was a very young age and my mom 58 00:02:53,106 --> 00:02:56,376 had to take over his roofing business, which she knew nothing about. 59 00:02:56,376 --> 00:03:00,580 So she really taught me what hard work and dedication was. 60 00:03:00,580 --> 00:03:03,249 She had six of us at home to take care of. 61 00:03:03,249 --> 00:03:05,018 Still time for you to be an astronaut? 62 00:03:05,018 --> 00:03:08,388 No, probably not now, but I had a lot of fun 63 00:03:08,388 --> 00:03:11,291 and good experiences along the way trying to be an astronaut. 64 00:03:11,658 --> 00:03:15,962 And I've got a very successful career in just starting 65 00:03:15,962 --> 00:03:18,531 with that seedling idea of I want to be an astronaut. 66 00:03:18,531 --> 00:03:20,300 What’s on your Bucket List? 67 00:03:20,300 --> 00:03:24,204 My bucket list is I need to go the last mile. I just need to finish 68 00:03:24,204 --> 00:03:25,972 and get my my private pilot’s license. 69 00:03:26,406 --> 00:03:27,407 Would you go into the past or into the future? 70 00:03:27,407 --> 00:03:28,508 Certainly the future. 71 00:03:28,508 --> 00:03:28,975 Yeah.