the last ssm test
it was real stressful i remember going
to sleep that night about nine o'clock
so i could usually i test we'd get in
about five in the morning we'd test
around two o'clock
that night i went to sleep about nine
woke up about one
couldn't go back to sleep got to work
about three in the morning
security guard mike who's been knowing
me for years
asked me cory what are you doing out
here i said i couldn't sleep
he says i got that test today huh i said
yeah so he says well go on in
have fun good luck tess went great
people that showed up that day we was
dressed all in white shirts
we looked just like the apollo days we
had the little black skinny ties
we had black framed glasses we had the
um
pocket protectors on so it was it was
exciting but it was actually sad because
everybody knew it was the last test out
here
and you know everybody was remembering
the people at the head that had trained
them through the years
and had retired and some of them you
know they were talking to
and just you know we had people from
canoga pratt whitney
from headquarters everywhere it was just
an awesome experience and i'm really
actually blessed that i was able to
actually
have some history and and test you know
the space shuttle main engine out here
i started working here for ssme
around november of 2001 and
if i can remember my most fondest
memories i have to say
every shuttle launch pretty much being
in the control room
just watching the engines light up
and everybody's waiting for them to turn
off
once they're turning off the the room
pretty much go into chairs because
we know that once we like the engines
and turn them off
there's a good chance that we're going
to have a successful mission
there was one launch that i actually
went to ksc
for and i was observing all the
operations in with
the stack that's where the ssme
team sets at for each shuttle launch at
ksc
and i actually went out just minutes
before
before we launched the shuttle and i
that was my first
live shuttle launch that i have ever
seen it was very impressive
since then i have seen one more and i'm
hoping to see
plenty more in the future
years ago i met my wife here at
rocketdyne
shortly after we were married we had the
good fortune to go to kennedy space
center for a launch
and because she was an employee on some
of our free time
she was also badged in and we could go
to her around
a couple of days before the launch were
added launch pad
our platforms giving us access to the
engines were still in place
and we're standing out there sea breeze
coming in
our heads actually up in one of the
nozzles
and of course i reached over and touched
the back of her head and she thought i
was
being romantic and i had to spoil the
mood by
telling her i didn't want her hair to
blow into the nozzle and
provide any kind of contamination
one particular memory that stands out
for me working on the space shuttle
program
is doing the routine post-test
inspections that
i was learning my first few years here
is turbo machinery
there was one particular pump we were
doing our final
inspections on it was completed
acceptance test and was ready to be
going to florida
and during that routine inspection i
noticed something unusual that i had
never seen before
and uh it looked like a metallic
contamination behind the turbine
when i talked to the more experienced
engineers about it and we realized what
was going on it actually
started an investigation understanding
why this was in here and we ended up
having to send the pump back
for disassembly and for me it was
a really a lesson that even a routine
inspection will find something that's
of significant importance to the program
and that was really the first time i
felt like
i had directly contributed to the
success of the program and it was
a day that that will stand out in my
memory for a very long time
i was fortunate enough to hire in up at
mississippi
and they were in dire need of a computer
engineer i came out there in 1977 in the
summer
in the fall and and came to work on a
computer system because it
had been down for three weeks and and
they couldn't test the shuttle tanks
with the liquid level sensors marv
carpenter was the engineering manager at
that time
said that i was i got asked how long it
would take to get the system up and
running if i had an estimate and i told
him i didn't have
didn't bring a lunch so i expected i
would get it in and it was up in about
an hour and he said
you're probably one of the smartest
engineers i've ever met
very fortunate the only thing i knew was
it happened to be that particular
computer but
about a week later marv called me and he
says would you interested in going to
work for
rocketdyne and i says that'd be great
and he says well
what would it take and i said i don't
know what is your smartest guy now again
so i happened to be looking at plowden
was a test conductor and i hired him as
an mts4 that day and that's been a great
life ever since
i guess funny stories when i when i
first started out on the team it was
pretty new and
a little bit green to build in the
hardware i was working with another
senior
manufacturing engineer and it seemed as
though every time
he had taken a day off for vacationing
or was out sick is when all the major
catastrophes happened
we had we had some hardware that was
damaged a few times a duck that flipped
in a dolly and i was the one here to
respond for it and
really didn't know what to do so i was
having to to run around and
collect a group of people to come help
me solve the problems but
without fail it always seemed like the
bad things went wrong when he wasn't
here and i was so i wasn't sure if it
was my fault or someone else's but
it was pretty interesting it was a good
learning experience on the program
we've definitely had our trials and
tribulations building the hardware but
we've made it through it and i think
we've made some of the best hardware the
programs
put out so
i'm originally from the boston area and
i
um i originally thought that i'd like to
have a career somewhere in the new
england area and
i did get an opportunity to come out
here and work for rocketdyne at the time
and i really thought that was going to
be a short part of my career is to come
out to california work
on what rocketdyne was working you know
the shuttle and so forth and space
shuttle main engine for a year or so and
then go back
and like i said that's over 30 years ago
and
it has just been a tremendous experience
and challenging experience that i enjoy
very much so
to answer your question it somewhat has
been serendipity how i
got into this career but it has been
very enjoyable and very exciting
and and like i said previously it's it's
the people
it's the challenge of the work it's the
total team effort relative to not only
pwr working on a task but also with our
customer our nasa customer
working to make something very
challenging successful
and advancing our presence in space and
our understanding
of what space is about
i had the opportunity to see in person
my first space shuttle launch
this was in 1994 in september sts 64.
and my daughter was only three so she
could not be in the
stands with me she had to be on the
causeway which is where the general
public can go to view the space shuttle
launch
so my husband took the short straw and
was with her on the causeway and my
sister sat with me in the viewing stands
and back in those days
uh the launch window was much greater it
was up to two and a half hours that we
could have a launch window
and as courses timing would have it we
would wait the entire two hours
wondering are we actually going to be
able to launch the shuttle
and the worry was weather and the clouds
were heavy
and the tension was great at one point
i was looking at the countdown clock and
there was a soldier standing next to it
and it had been a long time and he'd
been standing there the whole time
and for whatever reason in the last
moments he knelt on one knee
and sure enough within moments the
engines ignited the fire and the flames
you can see it it lights up the whole
sky and all the
natural flying fish the alligators all
the birds everything comes it's amazing
how you see everybody reacting that
people and all
and up it went and i i still remember it
vividly
and of course i had no idea what my
husband and my daughter were
experiencing they were quite
a distance from ourselves and we didn't
have cell phones but then
so i had to wait until we re um you know
convene together
and she was so excited only three years
old telling me
about what her experience had been as
well with so many of the
visitors from all over the world but
also locally
hundreds go on the causeway to see the
launch and that's my fond memory
one very uh memorable experience
this was a number of years ago and one
of my co-workers
and i went to mountain home arkansas
trout fishing on the white river which
we used to go over there frequently
but we rode this particular time and it
happened to be
during the time when we were having a
launch so we finished fishing and
we went into town and of course mountain
home arkansas
unless you're there for trout fishing
it's not exactly a
tourist hot spot so
we went into this little restaurant sort
of
slash sports bar uh called the back 40.
um of course there's tvs on the being a
sports bar there's tvs everywhere
and we said hey the shuttle's about to
launch uh
could we see it on the tv and we got
this
dumbfound look and we said
you know the space shuttle and we still
got that same look like
you ain't you ain't from around here are
you and so
uh we looked at each other and said well
obviously we're not in huntsville
anymore
and uh i probably should have asked the
guy
how the razorbacks were doing that year
and we probably would have gotten a
response
obviously we didn't have our priorities
right
i started working shuttle systems in
1977
and so you can
you can do the arithmetic there's no
math involved in that
but uh we've had a good time i was like
i say
the research the fun stage we broke a
few things
learned a lot uh put in 80 hours a week
for months at a time and
when we would get a test off it was it
was a feeling of completion
you did something and
i like to have that feeling when i when
i leave here i like to have that feeling
every day
that i've accomplished something and
with the team that we have now
we can
you know some people uh worry about what
we're going to do
after the end of the shuttle program and
we had a meeting last week with the
deputy program manager for constellation
and
there's just so many exciting things on
the horizon for the people
in the liquid propulsion world the j2
programs out there the rs68
all the new missions are coming up with
pwr engines on them and even engines
that we haven't built yet
so just to be a part of this you're sad
that shuttle's going away but the new
programs are going to come on
quick and really i think there'll be
very little transition or we'll
we won't even notice it
growing up in the valley as a young boy
i was able to look up at the santa
susana
and see it light up at night and my
father became
an employee of rocketdyne 40 years ago
and so that was a big
big push for me to want to get in and be
following my father's
footsteps so when i got hiring into
rocketdyne that was that was
pretty amazing for me that that i'm
following in my father's footsteps
and as far as the shuttle itself i don't
mean to be cliche but
when i finally went and watched the
shuttle fly it was just amazing and i
just didn't
really understand the power and the
uniqueness
and how scary it is to watch that fly
and once i got to see that i'll never
forget it
i've always known working on the shuttle
program that that was something great
and i've always been proud to tell
people i meet hey i work on the shuttle
program
not many people really get to say that
we're a handful of people out in this
world that get to say that
and i've always been proud but watching
the shuttle fly
just solidified it
you