Glad you like to see the products that I help work to support (from distance, at one of those "centers" that does National Aeronautical type stuff).

terpfan1980 wrote:

MasonM wrote:

For me as well.  I wanted to be an astronaut so bad when I was a child.  If not that, a pilot.  Heck, I'd still love to be a pilot, though I've never had any training.  I knew I could never...  ... because I wore glasses and had such screwed up vision.  Not to mention hearing (draining tubes multiple times when I was a child) problems.  Sinus problems, etc.

After I finally settled on a career choice (originally I had wanted to be an architect, but then later moved into computing and systems management) I wanted to work for that ... Space Agency pretty badly.  They were close home for me (fairly close to home that is), and got to do cool space age stuff.  Lots of computers, doing lots of cool stuff.  It just didn't happen for me for a long, long time.

Almost by accident I lost my job working in private industry (laid off from post Y2K cut-backs when customers stopped buying the products/services my previous employer made in the numbers that would sustain a job for me) and wound up back in the contracting world.  My experience was perfect for the employer that got me a position close to where I'm at now.  That job (within the same center) led to the job I have now and I really couldn't be happier.

It is a great place to work, and a great field to work in.  I keep hoping that more money will go into more cool things in the space program because I really believe the space program pays huge dividends to us here on Earth, but the budget process is always tight and there are always other priorities.  I'm hopeful that the return to the Moon and on to Mars will be a return to glory for the manned space flight program.  Meanwhile, I continue to be awed by cool events like the one you got to watch today.