Julie Montgomery...

Hi there! My name is Julie Montgomery, and I'm majoring in Electrical Engineering and Plan II Honors at the University of Texas at Austin. This summer is my third and final tour at JSC, so I guess it's time for me to throw my story in there with all the others.

The Pre-JSC Days

Like so many of my co-op peers, I've been a space fiend for a long time. I always enjoyed mental challenges as a kid, both in technical and creative arenas, and new technologies, like computers and the internet, fascinated me. Perhaps most importantly, I had a love for exploration and discovery. When I went to Space Camp for the first time, I knew I had discovered my future. I will never forget the utter awe I felt watching Destiny in Space in the breathtaking Omnimax theatre. From that point on, beauty and science, symmetry and progress, elegance and exploration were irreversibly intertwined. I returned to Huntsville four more times, participating in mission simulations, piloting a plane, and beginning scuba training. At the time, I looked forward to becoming a Space Camp counselor in college. I had no idea then that I could skip straight to working for NASA as a co-op!

Even in college, I wasn't expecting to co-op. I was (and still am) working on two degrees, so I just dismissed it as too difficult to work into my schedule. Furthermore, I didn't realize that the only real way to become a permanent JSC civil servant is by co-oping. Luckily, the director of UT's Engineering Career Assistance Center "encouraged" me to go after a co-op position and to do it early because co-ops are selected a few semesters in advance. She also put me in touch with Bob Musgrove, the director of the JSC Co-op Program to schedule an interview. If I have one piece of advice for someone pursuing a co-op position it is this: show all your enthusiasm for and devotion to the space program during your interview. There are hundreds of intelligent, hard-working students submitting resumes each year; what will set you apart is your specific desire to contribute to NASA, and especially to manned space flight, JSC's specialty.

A Part of the NASA Team

Needless to say, I was thrilled beyond belief when I got the call. I wouldn't shut up about it for weeks. When I moved three hours to the southeast in January 2003, I really didn't know what to expect, but I was excited about it.

My first tour was in the Space Flight Training Division within the Mission Operations Directorate (MOD). Specifically, I worked in DT47, a group of instructors that educates astronauts, cosmonauts, and flight controllers about the Electrical Power System (EPS) and Thermal Control System (TCS) of the International Space Station (ISS). Clearly, NASA life is full of acronyms, so much so that you feel like you're learning a second language. But everyone is amazingly patient and friendly towards the co-ops, so whether it's acronyms or your primary project for the semester, you never feel scared that people will expect more from you than you're capable of.

During that first tour in Spring 2003, I learned all about the ISS EPS and TCS, eventually earning my instructor certification to teach an EPS lesson. I also developed an interactive model of part of the EPS using Macromedia Flash, which is now used in another EPS class. In addition, I collected and took photos to be mounted in an ISS mock-up to make it more realistic, observed mission simulations (sims), and began Russian language training. It was an incredible semester, despite the Columbia accident two weeks into it.

For my second tour in Fall 2003, I decided to see the other side of ISS EPS operations, moving across the breezeway to where the flight controllers work. In DF74, the Power, Heating, Articulation, Lighting, and Control (PHALCON) group, my primary project was working through the backroom flight controller certification flow. By the end of the semester, I was able to participate in a sim as the backroom POWER, which was overwhelming but wonderful. The coolest part of working in the flight control division was spending time in the Mission Control, watching real-time events like a Soyuz docking.

Now it's Summer 2004, and I've begun my last JSC co-op tour. This semester I've returned to DT47, and I can't believe my co-op experience is almost over. As for projects, I will be getting re-certified in my EPS lesson and creating a new EPS tool in Flash. I will also be doing more work over at the ISS mock-up to further improve its fidelity and to observe more sims by the senior instructors.

The Co-op Experience

Joining the ranks of the co-ops means more than working even a typical NASA job, though, because we get to participate in all sorts of special opportunities. Over the semesters, I've heard lectures from important figures in NASA's history (Gene Kranz, Chris Kraft, John Young) and from the brilliant minds of NASA's future (Ginger Kerrick, Franklin Chang-Diaz). I've gone on tours to the most amazing JSC facilities: the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, the Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory (featuring the VASIMR that will take us to Mars!), all varieties of mock-ups and simulators of the Shuttle and ISS, the X-38, etc. Additionally, I co-founded the Co-op Ambassador Program, I've participated in Educational Outreach events, I've contributed to the Co-op Scoop newsletter, and I've reliably attended bi-weekly Social Committee Meetings (SCuM). I think the only people who have more fun around here are the astronauts!

Outside the JSC campus, co-ops also have a lot going on. Parties, movies, concerts, lunches and dinners, trips to other cities, assorted outdoorsy activities, and just hanging out keep us entertained in the evenings and on weekends. The co-ops are smart, interesting, fun people, and I'm proud to call them my friends.

Well, I guess that's about it. Co-oping has its rough aspects (moving every semester, leaving friends back home, forgetting material from prerequisite engineering classes), but I still think it's worth it. It's a brilliant way to find out if JSC and Houston are right for you before you commit your whole post-graduate life to them, and there's nowhere else in the world you can contribute so much to manned space exploration. If you have the opportunity, take it. I'm happy to answer any questions about JSC, co-oping, or anything else; just send me a note at juliemontgomery@(removethisspamblocker)mail.utexas.edu!