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okay the same as for altitude I've

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always had an interest in NASA in grade

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school I remember just kind of grew a

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fascination and it from textbook history

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classes and then watching some of the

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shuttle operations on TV but I never

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really understood how to get to NASA and

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I grew up in a very small town in New

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York so we didn't have exposure to stem

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classes or engineering or science career

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fields so it wasn't until the Air Force

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actually when I was going into college

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that they actually introduced

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engineering to me what pong graduation I

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commissioned as an officer and then I

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stationed out at a Druze Air Force Base

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out in California and I worked in

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developmental tests for the Air Force

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and about the time my service commitment

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ended this job opening at Armstrong had

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opened up in the operations engineering

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branch and it was kind of like a dream

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come true because I've always had this

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interest in the path kind of forged its

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own way so I had this newfound interest

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in aeronautics and airplanes and here

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was an opportunity to be hands-on with

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the aircraft and I've just always

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appreciated NASA's mission and vision of

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exploring our own curiosity and here was

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an opportunity to work and be able to do

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that I'm Kay McMurtry and I'm an

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Operations engineer at NASA Armstrong an

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Operations engineer uses engineering

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judgment to ensure the mission success

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in air worthiness of Aeronautics

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research airborne science the space

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technologies as well as their aircraft

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that take them into flight so we're kind

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of Li the interface between the

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technologies and the aircraft so we take

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that technology

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we help develop it ground test to

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integrate it and do the fly execution

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and then get that data that the

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researchers want and then hand it back

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to the researchers for analysis

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my first assignment when I came to NASA

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Armstrong was with the f-18 aircraft

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that's eight four five and we had to

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integrate a flat-screen monitor in the

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backseat of the f-18 and remap the

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window space so that a backseat pilot

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could fly the aircraft using the monitor

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only with limited peripheral vision out

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the window and that was to gain more

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information on how a cockpit might be

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designed for a supersonic aircraft that

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might require different configurations

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of the cockpit I didn't really know that

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there was a whole aeronautical side and

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I didn't really I kind of had this

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feeling that NASA was for the super

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crazy smart PhD people who invented

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everything and went to Harvard I enjoy

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the community outreach quite a bit just

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because it gives me an opportunity to

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introduce engineering to the younger

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generation since I felt that in my time

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as a as a young kid I didn't have that

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exposure so I like to try to make sure

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that kids are aware of that because it's

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just something that I noticed was

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lacking from my school days so that's a

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lot of energy that we can be harnessing

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so I've developed this passion in

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aeronautics this passion for aircraft

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and I wanted to become more familiar

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with how they operate and I wanted to

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gain that knowledge base in aeronautics

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a little bit more intimately so I decide

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to get my private pilot's license it

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puts you in a position where you have to

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always be thinking on the ball and kind

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of plan ahead so that is the challenge

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but it's also exciting and thrilling at

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the same time and then being able to

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kind of see the world from that vantage

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point it's just really interesting and

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unique my husband is actually a private

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pilot as well so we can kind of do that

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together and it kind of builds my

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confidence to have another experienced

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pilot with me and we have plans this

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year this summer to go out and to

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northern California maybe into other

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states to just explore and go to cool

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places so I've recently moved from being

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an operations engineer to management

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position within the branch and what

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motivated me to take that career path is

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the fact that it provides an opportunity

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for me to learn more things from a wide

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variety of people within the branch that

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have different experiences viewpoints or

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perspectives and that that or options

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nearing branch has really provided an

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eye-opening experience for me to learn

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through them and that's just been the

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greatest part of my job and what's kind