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the month of february is national

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african american history month and nasa

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joins the celebration um to honor the

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some of the contributions of african

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americans that have dedicated their

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lives to space flight and the pursuit of

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discovery today we'll be discussing this

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subject with uh sheila yomapay a

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biomedical engineer and a flight

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controller here at the johnson space

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center sheila thanks for being with us

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today happy to be here okay so um tell

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us a little bit about what the

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observance of this particular holiday

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means to you and to space flight

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i think for me it has changed over time

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having been raised in ghana i

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once i moved here it was for me a

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learning time and also

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a chance to become more aware of the

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many achievements of african americans

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and also to better understand the black

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experience here in this country

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over time

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it's not just about celebrating the

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achievements but it's also a time to

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reflect on how we can contribute to

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what's been done thus far

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and encourage others to become a part of

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it

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excellent so your contribution i guess

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would be uh being a flight controller

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here at the johnson space center can you

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tell me how the space business interest

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you

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so that was a

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bit of a long story for me

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i started with a love for airplanes i

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fell in love with airplanes when i was

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four on my second airplane ride and i

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thought this is the best thing i have to

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find a way to always be on an airplane

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growing up in ghana i wasn't aware of

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any women in aviation at the time and

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the only

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thing i could think of was to become a

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flight attendant so i set the goal at

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four i was going to be a flight

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attendant so this was my goal until i

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was about 10 when i was discussing this

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with one of my teachers

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and he asked well don't you want to fly

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the airplane i thought well could i

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and he said why not so then i thought

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well someday i'm going to fly an

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airplane

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so a few years later my sister and i

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moved here to the us and after high

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school i chose to go to college to

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pursue a degree in the stem field and

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also

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obtain my private pilot certificate

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so

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after i did this and graduated i

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came here to houston actually i interned

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at the hobby airport in operations

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and after that

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i moved on to ellenton field

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and during this time here in the us i

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was aware of the space program but it

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wasn't

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something real to me it was this

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intangible surreal amazing thing and

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then i end up working at ellenton field

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in airport ops

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and i'm practically in nasa's backyard

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there are astronauts flying in t-38s and

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the coolest aircraft that nasa owns are

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flying in and out of ellington and i

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thought man what is going on over there

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and could i ever be a part of it

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so adding on to this a friend of mine a

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really good friend of mine ended up

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starting to work here at johnson space

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center so i got to hear about all of her

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cool experiences here

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and

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i formulated the plan that i was

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eventually going to work in this

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environment i just had to find the right

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spot so i continued on in my career

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still keeping an eye out for something

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that might suit me

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i

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and

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then

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a few years ago the perfect opportunity

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came up and i ended up here as a

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biomedical flight controller quite the

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resume

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can you tell us a little bit about what

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you do at nasa right now

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as a biomedical flight controller i am

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part of a team whose primary function

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is to ensure astronaut health and safety

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by providing operational and engineering

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support here in the mcc

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so some of the equipment

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or hardware on station that we support

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are the

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exercise equipment so the treadmill t2

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and

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resistive device which

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functions the same way as or serves the

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same function as a weight machine here

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on the ground a red

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so in addition to the exercise equipment

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we also support air quality monitoring

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devices radiation monitoring devices and

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that's just to mention a few because the

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list could go on a lot of cool hardware

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um we talk about every day because the

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astronauts do exercise about two and a

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half hours per day

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so can you tell us about where you see

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the future of space flight what that

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means for

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kids for girls growing up

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and

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yes i think the immediate future

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holds

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the return for a human space flight from

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u.s soil which hopefully will reignite

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the interest in the space program and

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encourage the youth to

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pursue

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education in the stem field

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long term hopefully

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we will

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achieve a visit to mars

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and you know the platforms like iss is

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helping pave the way and it's going to

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take a lot of

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research and breakthroughs in

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just all areas of science technology

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engineering and the efforts of

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people with different backgrounds

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different experiences coming together to

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work as a unit to help us achieve this

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diversity is definitely one of the main

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objectives of nasa and it's to to

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achieve these uh goals we need a round

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perspective of thinking

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sheila i'd like to thank you for being

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with us today this is sheila yoamape

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biomedical engineer and flight

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controller here at the nasa johnson