My name is Stephanie Stilson, I work at the Kennedy Space Center, and I am the NASA vehicle manager for orbiter Discovery.
Music.
I work at the Kennedy Space Center, and I am the NASA vehicle manager for orbiter Discovery, and that means that
I oversee the processing required to get the orbiter ready for a safe return to flight.
The orbiter itself is a very complex vehicle, so there's always work to be done.
There's a schedule of time that we're trying to allot work into. It takes a lot of planning and coordination.
Obviously, we'll get back to flight as soon as we're ready. There's a lot of work that has to be scheduled to get there.
And so I spend my time every day going through the schedule, ensuring we have the right jobs on the schedule and that we're getting everything
accomplished that we need to, to be ready for flight.
I began working for NASA as a cooperative education student while I was still in college.
I was attending North Carolina State University, working on my degree in computer engineering. And the office that I started with as a co-op
is the same office I'm in now.
Now I've been around other places since then, it's just come around full circle, and now I'm back in the same office that I started in
way back when.
The person in my life that inspired me the most is my grandmother Stilson. We've always been very close, we still are.
She's very active; 83 years old, she plays golf twice a week. I hope that when I'm that age that I'm as active as she is.
She was always inspiring me by telling me I could do whatever I wanted. We used to spend summers together every summer up in the mountains,
we had a cabin there.
And we would read together, we would do crafts together, we would play sports and things, and she always made me feel that anything I wanted to do,
she would help me get there.
I can be a role model to both boys and girls, because I can show them if they pick something -- a goal in their life -- they can get there.
Science and math are hard subjects, and they may feel that they can't achieve what they want to achieve because they're having a hard time.
But if I can show them and talk to them and let them know that by working hard, they can get there,
they can realize that they can achieve anything they want to do.
To work for NASA, with NASA, with the Space Program, doesn't mean you have to be technically oriented.
Doesn't mean you have to be in science or mathematics. There's people in, in every career position within NASA.
If you enjoy writing and that's something that makes you happy, then pursue that and, and write things about the Space Program.
Work for Public Affairs, where you can write articles and so forth. Don't feel that just because science and math doesn't turn you on
that that means you can't be a part of the Space Program. And I think a lot of people,
since the majority of the folks that work for NASA are engineers or scientists,
they think that that's the pigeonhole they have to be in. And that's not true at all.
Ever since I was a young girl, when I visited the Kennedy Space Center, I wanted to be an astronaut.
So, as a lifetime achievement type goal, that's what I'd like to be.
I'd like to have the opportunity. Now that's a very elite group of folks, it's very hard to become an astronaut,
but I always have in the back of my mind and I try to improve myself, both through education and experience,
so maybe one day I can be a part of that elite group.
Music.