Courtney McManus…

A Mighty Introduction…

My sister and I hanging out at a castle. It's what we do.

Alright, so. I am going to begin this whole biography thing with one little fact: I grew up in The Middle Of Nowhere, KS (technically known as Topeka, but who’s being picky?). Kansas, for those of you who don’t know, has two mottos, one official and one that I completely made up, but think should be official. The first is: Ad Astra per Aspera (or “To the Stars through Difficulty”…in Latin), which appears on the state seal, the state flag, the floor of the capital building, etc. The second is: “There is nothing to look at on the ground, so we might as well just look up at the sky.” I say that this should be a motto because that was exactly what I did growing up. My parents were both teachers-by-day and astronomers-by-night, always out in the prairie doing occultations, asteroid grazings, and other cool astronomy stuff in the wee hours of the morning. As a result, this is where my sister and I (pictured above…I’m the one on the left) grew up: in the middle of a field, in Kansas, at night. I believe that this fact is one of the main reasons I have always been obsessed with the Great Cosmos and working with NASA. I’ve wanted to work in our nation’s space agency ever since I learned what “work” was – and I’m finally here. It is the epitome of a dream come true.

A little about moi…

Me, my physics teacher, and two other students at the Russian Mission Control Center in Moscow…it was cold. Very cold.

Like I said already, I grew up in Topeka, KS. Naturally, like any restless Topekan, I had a strong urge to get out of the city of my birth and see the world. So, when I was a junior in high school, I decided to stop roaming the mighty halls of Topeka High, and start roaming the vastness that is the land of Mother Russia. I lived for a year in a wonderful city called Nizhnii Novgorod (about 270 mi west of Moscow, the 3rd largest city in European Russia) and met the most incredible people from all over the world, all the while learning the language and customs of the Russia. I got to travel all over Western Russia – from the icy north to the sub-tropics of the Black Sea. I knew a handful of Russian when I left, but when I came back, I was having a hard time speaking English. If you haven’t yet studied abroad, I highly suggest doing it! Take a chance – it’ll change your life!!

Anyway, when I got back from Russia, I finished up high school and moved up in the world – from Kansas all the way to Indiana. That’s right, starting in the fall of 2006, I became a Boilermaker and started my freshman year at Purdue University to study Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering. Then, in February of my freshman year, I interviewed for a co-op position at Johnson Space Center. Needless to say, one phone-call-from-Anne-Roemer-and-me-screaming-in-the-lounge-of-my-dorm-and-running-upstairs-to- call-my-parents incident later, I was proud to be accepted as a co-op at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. Of course, I had to get through two and a half more semesters of school first…

Work Work Work…

I also get very excited when things work...

Eventually, I made it through those two and a half semesters – mostly because I had visions of NASA swimming in my head to keep me focused. Then, in January of 2008, I made the trek down to good old Houston, Texas (where, I was pleased to find, the weather was a nice sixty degrees and sunny! As opposed to the 20 degrees and snowy back home…).

My first work tour, I was assigned to DO47 – NASAspeak for the Advanced Mission Planning Group, in the Flight Activities Branch, a part of the Operations division in the Mission Operations Directorate. All of that is a fancy way of saying “We’re the branch that makes the flight plans and timelines for all shuttle missions and day-to-day ISS activities.” It really is a great group for a newbie co-op. The nature of the group entails us knowing a lot about all sorts of aspects of the flight so that the activities required on the flight can be carried out in a proper manner (i.e. with enough power, at the right communication periods, with the proper angle between the ISS and the sun, etc). Thus, I learned a ton about Shuttle missions and the ISS – I even got certified in a back-room flight controller position! I worked on a variety of project and the people in my group were a blast to work with. But that’s true for most people down here…

This is me working in the OpsPlan MPSR as RPE Support, a flight controller position. I am very intense when I work, as you can see.

I’ve decided to spend my next work tour (Fall 2008, after a little bit of summer school) out at the White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) in New Mexico. Little known fact: WSTF is actually a part of JSC, but it’s located out in NM because of the type of testing that goes on out there. Pretty nifty, huh? I’m not sure exactly what I’ll be working on yet, but my mentor works on cool things like hypergolic propellant systems testing and microgravity combustion! After my stint in the desert, I’ll head back up to school for the spring, then I’ll be back down here at JSC in the summer of 2009 working with EG5, the Aeroscience and Flight Mechanics division, Advanced Mission design branch. Then, it’s back to school, back at JSC, back to school and so on and so forth until I (eventually) graduate!

Life as a Co-op Rocks!

Wedge Antilles Chili rocks!!

Not only do you not have homework, but you also get paid! Co-op life is wonderful! While all of your friends are slaving away, studying hard, and cramming for tests, you can enjoy a relaxing evening playing on an intramural team, perhaps watching a movie…or even sleeping! Don’t get me wrong – co-ops have to work extra hard a school when they are there, but when we’re not at school, life is wonderful! Especially if you love love love where you work, like I do!

There is always a plethora of things to do after work. Just to name a few, this year I played intramural softball and volleyball, was on a chili cook-off team, auditioned for and was cast in a play at a local theatre, took trips, camped on the beach…the list goes on. More than likely, you’ll be able to occupy yourself in the vast amounts of free time that you will not be used to having. And if you’re tired of the urban sprawl that is the great Houston area, you can go out to western Texas and escape to the middle of nowhere for some good camping, hiking…even spelunking! Of course, all of this freedom makes going back to school and putting your nose to the grindstone more difficult, but in the end it is totally worth it! I’ve met some amazing people on my co-op tour, and I know that I am bound to meet tons more as the years progress. One thing that I have found all co-ops hold common: we are all huge nerds, each in our own special way.

This is me at Enchanted rock out west of Houston. Apparently, I give this rock "two thumps up"...=)

Good luck with all of your endeavors and I hope to see you down here at JSC sometime! Cheers!