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I think I first got interested
in working with tools

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when I started going on job sites
with my dad.

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When I was really young, my dad was an
electrician, turned master electrician

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and then electrical contractor,
and finally being a business owner,

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owning his own
electrical contracting company.

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I started off just going to jobs with them
and hanging out to actually

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getting tools put in my hands
and working alongside of my dad.

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And I grew up that way all the way

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until I was about 25 years old,
but started out when I was about seven,

10
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when I started off with my dad actually,
you know,

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putting my hands on tools
and tools on materials.

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I was getting paid in Winchell's donuts

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because those were the stores that we were
remodeling back in Southern California.

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That was such a critical part
of my whole life.

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I can't tell you how how meaningful
it was to get paid with donuts.

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I mean, I had seven on a table
and it was like

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I didn't even know which one to eat first.

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As I started to go work for my father,
more and more I got older and older.

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Donuts quite weren't quite cutting it.

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Plus I was, you know, an athlete
and realizing that diet was a little bit

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more important to me.

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So the donuts turned into dough and

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though I was the last to get paid,
which I didn't mind,

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Dad started to give me
a little bit more of a of a wage.

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And when I was in high school
and I was a little bit more coordinated

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and had a number of years

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of following my dad on the job,
he would then send me out on service calls

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so he could send me out
and I would go take care of it.

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So by the time I was in college,

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I was pretty well

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independent in that I could
troubleshoot problems that most commercial

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buildings encountered from J boxes
to receptacles to panels, subpanels, etc.

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That's kind of wiring that I did.

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I was one of his
most reliable employees.

35
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And so because when I came home,
I came home to Dad.

36
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But I also I love my dad.

37
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I love my my dad's company
and what it stood for.

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And he was my best teacher. Watching my dad
go on a job site...

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And I knew we had the blueprints
and we'd look at these and we'd

40
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look at the walls and there'd be a barrier
in the way that like a

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like a beam that we weren't expecting.

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And my dad would look at it
and I'd be like,

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"How're you going to fix it, Dad?"
and he's, " let me think about it."

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And it wasn't long
before he came up with a solution.

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So I learned a lot of courage
watching my dad and I watched him.

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I watched him work through it,
and I helped him.

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I held the tool.

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I climbed up in the attic.

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I did whatever he needed to
to get the job done.

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So just a it's endless.

51
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The things that I learned,

52
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A lot of what I did working for my father,

53
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I utilized on board the space station
because you're at a place

54
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that things break all the time
and you don't always have what you need.

55
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And sometimes you have to get pretty
clever with what you have to fix things.

56
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And one of the times
when I really used the the

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the training that I received from
my father is when we had a pump

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fail on board the space station
and I had to go do an EVA to fix it.

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One of two ammonia pumps
external to the space station failed.

60
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So we were down a single cooling channel
and there's only two cooling channels.

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It's like a radiator in your car.

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And when the radiator goes down,
there's nothing to cool your engine.

63
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It it's just a miraculous event onboard
that required

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the efforts of everybody
who's got a hand in the space station.

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So from work in the tools
to work in the teamwork,

66
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it was one of the most gratifying things.

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And there was an electrical connector
that I had to remove on the failed pump

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that was really stiff
and I had to use an alternate method

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of getting the connector off.

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And once I did,
I got kudos from my crewmate,

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Doug Wheelock, his way to go TC

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And I said, "my dad would be proud!"

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Tracy:  Got it! 

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Wheelock: Good job TC!

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Tracy: My dad would be proud!

76
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and asked my dad later, Did you hear Dad?

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I gave you a shout out.

78
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He acted all cool.

79
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He was like, Yeah, you know,

80
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It's  like it was from space Dad! (laughs)

81
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There's so much
I could talk about with that spacewalk.

82
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But I did feel like I had taken
all my skills as a construction worker

83
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and really put them to work
during that series.

84
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I got this when I was seven.

85
00:04:51,457 --> 00:04:55,228
I only had one pouch
with a few electrician hand tools,

86
00:04:55,228 --> 00:04:59,666
but as I got older and more responsible
and a little better,

87
00:04:59,732 --> 00:05:03,770
my tool belt grew and I needed suspenders,
just like my dad's.

88
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Here it is.

89
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Instant electrician.

90
00:05:06,806 --> 00:05:07,740
You want to know what's in it?

91
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I got my assortment of screwdriver,
so we would have slotted.

92
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I got my standard.

93
00:05:13,313 --> 00:05:16,783
Philips, This is really super important
and I've got my long slot.

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It's got electrical tape around it
so that I don't zap myself.

95
00:05:19,719 --> 00:05:20,887
In case , you know,

96
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I get into a box that I didn't create,
somebody else did and I get shocked.

97
00:05:24,257 --> 00:05:28,394
So I got my a quarter inch driver
I know because its got a yellow dot

98
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I got my needle nose,
that's super important.

99
00:05:30,697 --> 00:05:33,700
And then I got my channel locks
and then I got my awl. 

100
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I really need that
because combination with my hammer,

101
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that's how I make holes in the wall or

102
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Love this stuff.

103
00:05:42,709 --> 00:05:45,411
Then I got my Klein's, or on the job...

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They're known as the "Lineman's"
because you, you can pull wire with them

105
00:05:49,182 --> 00:05:52,485
and you can twist wire with them,
You can cut wire with them.

106
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But we call them Kleins because it was
the first Klein tool that I ever had.

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No electrician is caught
without their wire strippers.

108
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You've got grooves
for different sized wires.

109
00:06:02,562 --> 00:06:04,364
When I was a little girl learning
how to do this,

110
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I had just one size
and I had to make it work.

111
00:06:06,733 --> 00:06:09,168
And then I got older
and a little bit more savvy.

112
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And so I graduated to this one.

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Love it!  Oh! Super important.

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This is not called a level.

115
00:06:15,007 --> 00:06:17,610
This is called a torpedo. All right?

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This is my oldest tool and it's maybe to
you called a voltmeter,

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but to an electrician,
a sparky, they call this...

118
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It's called the "Wiggy". Once you apply

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the ends to live wires,

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Bzzzzzt!  It acts wiggy.

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So I also have electrical tape.

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Walls are made out of aluminum studs.

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We got our tin snips here

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and then I got my keyhole saw,

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that's about it.

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This tool belt, every time I pull it out
and I, I use it either

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when I'm working at the house
or I'm working at the church, or

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I'm working on somebody else's house
fixing a problem that they have.

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I think I think about my dad.

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I think about my mom
and what the two of them allowed me to do.

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And a skill that would seem to be just
part of my upbringing

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has been a part of my life
and my career every step of the way.

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And it's just become a lot
more than just a belt that holds tools.

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I'm Tracy Dyson and I'm a NASA astronaut.