Intro music.
Every day, Todd Dugan brings the Space Shuttle closer to Return to Flight by lending a hand... and an arm.
Todd is an advanced system technician with United Space Alliance at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
"The best part is probably working on flight hardware. You get to have your hands on the flight hardware,
you get to interface with the equipment and the engineering."
He's part of the team preparing the brand new Orbiter Boom Sensor System for its first flight:
STS-114, the Return to Flight mission to the International Space Station.
"Teamwork is very important, because you've got all these different professionals working together to get the job done."
A camera and laser on the end of the boom will allow astronauts in space to detect any damage
to the orbiter Discovery's tiles and wing leading edges.
NASA Direct caught up with Todd as he and his colleagues prepared the boom for installation in Discovery's payload bay.
"What we're doing today is we're putting the final blankets on so it can be installed into the midbody of the orbiter.
The blankets are for thermal protection from the heat and the cold of space."
How did he get such an interesting job?
After working his way up to quality control, he learned of a vacancy in the lab where the Shuttle's robotic arm is processed.
"I got the job and I've been doing this now for almost six years."
In addition to the hands-on work with flight hardware, Todd enjoys the camaraderie among the team.
"You've got engineering, quality, technicians, management, and we're all trying to get the job done.
But they all have different aspects of the job to do.
Sometimes we butt heads, but at the end of the day, we usually remain friends.