I guess on a personal level I was
working for General Motors years ago and
I had my family on vacation I took my
kids to Disney World in Florida and we
heard on the radio that there was going
to be a shuttle launch so we looked into
it and found out and we went down to the
beach and it was like going to a rock
concert basically those were the days of
people having boom boxes and everybody
did the countdown on the beach and as it
turned out it was the initial maiden
voyage of the Challenger and just a few
years later I was working down in
Florida working for Pratt Whitney and
unfortunately I did see the demise out
the window of the second store building
with all my coworkers of the Challenger
disaster I would I was very remorseful
to the whole situation and I guess
that's the key key thing that keeps me
driving I and in the passion of the
shuttle program I'm getting goosebumps
my first engine test was that canoga
park up on the up on the hill at santa
susanna and the shockwaves that came off
the engine the power that came off of
our ian was so amazing
it just filled me with an excitement
that I can't even I can't even share
with you in words because you have to
feel it and I felt that when I've been
at every ssme launch and it's never
changed I think it has a major effect on
on how you look at the job that you have
to do I'm still filled with excitement
and energy and that's what's important
here to support shuttle you have to be
energized and you have to be motivated
to do that that job just the best that
you very best you can one of the things
that stand out in my mind when we first
ran our fuel pumps the gases that went
through the turbine was exhausted
through a war fish that was ignited and
put a big flame out decided a hot gas
manifold and in the hydrogen it was
pumped went up a stack and they actually
had to call a Palm Beach International
Airport every time I ran and rerouted
commercial traffic around the area when
we were going to do our runs and I was
pretty amazed about that that the the
heat from the from the running could go
that high to possibly interrupt a
commercial flight
a group of us were at KSC and we had had
the good fortune to visit the Columbia
room where they store recovered
artifacts from the Columbia accident
well our group was in the VA be waiting
on our tour guide to arrive and we were
all just kind of standing around talking
laughing and joking around in the mood
was very light when our tour guide
arrived and took us to the artifacts
room she opened the door and you could
have heard a pin drop as we saw the
displays it was a very somber very quiet
moment and I think the magnitude of the
tragedy really sink in with all of us
and I think you know together we've all
done some wonderful awesome things
working main engine and working on the
space shuttle program and so we
celebrate those things but at the same
time we're very mindful of the
sacrifices that some extremely
courageous people have made throughout
the entire history of NASA to get us
where we are today and we will always
remember and honor that I think the most
memorable time in my career working on
SS army was in the early 90s when we had
the on pad aborts that we had we had
actually four of them within the span of
two or three years and I had been an
engineer at the company for four or five
years when those happen so I was just
getting my feet wet long hours and you
spend a lot of time you learn a lot is
what I'm trying to say and those
experiences working for those aboard
when the eyes of the world were on you
that's something that's pretty memorable
me I came to ssme and them around
December 2005 so the first launch that I
saw working for ssme was in December
2006 my husband and I took vacation and
took both of our mothers and a lot of
our great nieces and nephews down for
the launch so we were out in the
causeway and it was a night launch oh it
was fantastic beautiful and as as though
you know after the launch and you're
watching it you're going to watch it as
long as you can and it's so excited and
so then the of the guy comes over the
intercom and says three main engines
operating nominal and I'm going boo boo
and then the launch goes out of sight
and my great nephew came up to me and
patted me on the shoulder and said good
job Anna Lisa and you know to me just
fantastic in the 80s we had a major
engine incident we were supposed to fly
nine days later and we literally worked
around the clock to make sure that we
could clear that engine and we had
different failure scenarios that we were
working we didn't know exactly what it
was but we had to make sure for any of
those failure scenarios that were
possible that the next flight was not
going to experience that same problem so
that's one of those fire drill memories
that you have the other memory is are
just I love working with the folks
around here you know just working with
true rocket scientists you know people
that are experts in their field
passionate about what they do really
dedicated to keeping astronauts safe we
get to talk with astronauts and get to
know them so that's just kind of a day
to day pleasure to work here mm I folks
we get to work with
I think the one of the saddest memories
that I have is when we decided to move
engine assembly out of canoga park it
was a business decision at that time and
it was a good decision to do it because
we weren't building that many more
engines but one member we had is we took
a picture of it and we were all waving
goodbye to the engine as it was the last
engine that left the engine line so
that's one of the sad memories that I
had of the engine line but there's tons
and tons of other good memories of
successful launches and great accolades
for everyone that have done good things
here at rocketdyne so there's a there's
a whole archive of good memories across
the board I had a recent experience that
I think is really pretty special to me
it changed some of my perspective I took
a class in ground operations for the
shuttle at KSC and course during this
class they're talking about the whole
flow from the day of shuttle lands and
all the steps that they go through to
get it ready to launch again and they
have schedules literally down to 15
minute increments during the flow of
everything that has to happen to that
shuttle and in all of these flows
there's just this little tiny part about
the ssme and it basically is a little
black that says install ssme or remove
ssme that kept thinking wait a minute
we're like the most important thing on
the orbiter why are they only spending a
couple little bars on all these
flowcharts and after about three days of
this I finally figured out you know why
we aren't showing up on that because we
are always there ready to support our
hardware is ready the folks doing the
flow at KSC they don't even have to
think about the ssme because they know
we are going to be there ready to
support yeah we're the ssme we're there
we're supporting our customer and they
don't even have to think about us
I remember when I was a little kid
probably about 12 years old and I was
excited about space program I remember
writing a letter to NASA and I didn't I
don't know what I wrote but i think it
was along the lines of deer nasa please
send me stuff and i remember getting an
envelope back from them a big old brown
envelope and for all i knew at that time
it was sent to me by john glenn himself
and i opened it up and it was pictures
of the apollo 8 program and the decal
about circling the moon and circling the
earth with the big 8 and that's truly
why i got excited about the space
program i remember the excitement that i
felt and admittedly i was probably only
11 or 12 years old but that really had
an impact on me and at that point in
time i decided hey i want to be part of
something bigger and I thought the space
program you can't get any bigger than
that and that's why I'm here today
starting here at the test stands they
had to burn stack so you get the burn
stacks going first and the flame a
hydrogen flame that was shoot in the
year 5,000 feet a lot of tests were late
at night seemed like he got things done
during the day and tested at night
that's historically true for anybody but
you were so close you could feel the
heat and then right before that the the
start sequence would be enabled the
valves would start to create ice would
start to fall and you that that sense of
what's going to happen next just built
and then when the pump lid off the roar
the sound it was just incredible it to
be so close and so much power at the end
of day when I walk away from the Space
Shuttle main engine program one of their
most memorable or rewarding parts of
working on the program where the people
that they worked with there's not a lot
of people in the world that have the
opportunity to work on rocket engines
and so you become very close I think
when you leave ssme or leave or retire
you're going to miss the people the most
always remember one time I decided to
take my wife to a launch and I decided I
would just enjoy the launch with my wife
and so we were at the the viewing area
on on the Banana River and and I
remember that you know I was on the cell
phone constantly with the guys in the
launch control room asking them for data
and they would feed be numbers and ask
questions we went back and forth and
finally the launch went off right on
time which was kind of special in those
days and I always remember we were
sitting in this large grandstand of
people and you know everybody was
cheering and yelling as the shuttle took
off and then when you finally couldn't
see it anymore everybody started leaving
of course we were sitting there still
glued on my cell phone as because the
shuttle engines were still firing and by
the time we hit Miko my wife and I were
the only one sitting in a grandstand
everybody else was left and we're
already partying I guess at that time
but you know is always special those
missions to hit me co and yet the the
thrill of that was just something
special and a lot of us got together
there's my first time actually going to
stephs I never been a stance before I've
seen pictures of the test stands and
whatnot but I never been on top of them
I decided I was going to make a little
paper airplane just to see how it was
stand up to a flying off the top of the
test and I really didn't tell anybody
that I was doing it so who knows i
probably could have got a little bit of
trouble doing that but when i first got
up there I was uh probably like anybody
else I was a little scared because uh
it's a little high up there when nobody
was looking and I turned to the side
when over there walking like I was
looking at the trees and trying to see
what else was out there I threw it and
needless to say because of the wind and
everything
paper airplane didn't fare so well
that's my little special story dealing
with SS at me the controller software
lab used to be in Canoga Park California
billing for and in 1994 there were there
was a decision to bring the lab closer
to the Marshall Space Flight Center
customer and there were a number of us
working in the Huntsville that were
integrated with the canoga park team to
facilitate that move crew or three of us
and Kevin and Bob I myself we moved the
lab from canoga park over here with pen
a lot of days underneath the floor I
remember a funny story because uh Bob
that we sent him underneath the floor
and he will disappear the only thing we
could see with his feet and then Kevin
and I when he needed to get out we will
pull him out by his feet out of the
floor spent four days underneath the
raised floor with about one foot of
clearance you know I go underneath there
at eight o'clock and come out for lunch
and dive back in there again pulling
cables you know all kinds of stuff we
found her teeth there and packing it up
and sending it to Huntsville a lot of
hard work went into that move and you
know we worked hard but we had a good
time doing it and I think we did it very
well and that makes me proud I think the
most fulfilling piece was watching the
first fuel pump fly I mean but the LOX
pump was exciting to but I went up to
launch for the for the first fuel pump
as STS 104 I believe was and it was a
5am launch so we all went up on the
night before and we were lucky enough to
take a family member with
and I brought my son who was five years
old at the time and we stayed up all
night and five o'clock in the mornings
awfully early for a five-year-old but he
saw the shuttle launch had lit up the
sky and he said dad that it looks like
its morning time and then the shuttle
left was dark again but he was very
excited seeing that launch and that
really gave me a lot of pride not only
in what I do but for my family to one of
our jobs here with the project support
group is to transfer files back and
forth when the NASA customer needs data
whatever since we aren't compliant back
and forth through our servers we serve
as that conduit so canoga park will put
or west palm whichever will put their
charts in flight ops which is a server
that the ssme team uses myself I have a
folder it's called Marcie and over the
years that servers been set out there
for years and all of our guys that I
work with it with the different product
teams you know they know that that's
where they're supposed to put the files
so at canoga we were sitting out there
one day when I was visiting with a big
group of turbomachinery people and I
knew God came up that I had never seen
before and he has this amazed look on
his face like wait a minute Marci as in
the Marcy folder he said I thought that
was not a real person eats that I
thought that was a folder I had no idea
there was somebody who actually took
care of that that that was your folder
I think the strangest thing I've ever
had to do on the program was actually
non concur with a change that I wrote
and the way that came down was when I
was at the Cape the engineers up here
called me and told me that we had got an
action from the program to change a
requirement well I immediately knew that
whoever gave us the action did not even
understand the test so I told him that
that we can't do we can't complete that
action so I told them I would call back
to the CM guy back in Houston and
telling that that action wasn't when it
needs to be withdrawn because it wasn't
appropriate so I called the JSC guy and
he said they don't have a mechanism for
withdrawing actions and so he said my
only option was to submit the change and
if I didn't agree with it non concur
which I did I roved the change and it
went through the change process then i
wrote a non concur to the change that i
wrote it went to the board and was
rejected because we didn't concur with
it and that closed the action and caused
this twitch the shuttle is hugely
important to the space program the space
program is one of America's crown jewels
and the shuttle is the centerpiece of it
two things really stick out in my mind
that that I just absolutely love number
one is seeing a launch that's a very
very moving experience and until you
have experienced it you can't really
describe it there's nothing really
prepares you for that experience the
other thing is in my family we like to
look on the website for when the space
station is going to pass over again and
I take my kids outside and we look at
the space station go by and to see the
brightest star in the night sky cross
over and you can tell your children that
the people that you worked with helped
put it there that's quite special very
very gratifying
in October I was at a suppliers it was
one of his open house events and I think
was a 20 year celebration and it was the
first time I was getting the opportunity
to go and be with an astronaut and the
astronaut was Robert hoot Gibson and I
remember it very well because I when I
showed up I had a lot of anticipation
and being able to meet him talk to him
get to know him and I remember that when
I was introduced we had a quick little
conversation and then he said well I'll
get back to you and talk to you later
well later never came because of the
fact that we were so busy with the
events and everything so after
everything was over I went back to the
hotel and I thought jeez I would have
loved to have talked to him in shortly
thereafter the phone rang and I picked
it up and he said Lee and I said yeah I
said this is hoot hoot Gibson he says
how about meeting me downstairs in the
lounge and have a couple beers and i
thought god what a great thing to have
happen he showed me he's a real person
he was talking about his family his
goals in life what he wanted and I think
from that I took the fact that this is
really for the astronauts and we need to
be very much aware of bringing them back
safely for their families