Johanna Pineiro...
*About Me*
I am half Colombian, half Puerto Rican, but raised in "La Isla del Encanto," Puerto Rico. I am currently a junior at
Georgia Tech, majoring in Aerospace Engineering and plan on graduating in spring of 2009. At Georgia Tech, I am part of
the Yellow Jackets Flying Club, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Spanish Speaking Organization and AAIA.
*How I ended up at NASA*
Before I was a coop, I had done internships for NASA while at high school. When I was in 9th grade I applied for the
Structured Inter Program at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. There I learned about the other high school programs
as well as the co-op program. On the summer going to my senior year, I did NASA SHARP at Georgia Tech jointly with Marshall
Space Flight Center. And going to my freshman year at Tech I did College Freshman Inter Program at Goddard Space Flight Center.
All these programs, created in me more passion about NASA and more determination in what I wanted to do. Therefore, my freshman
year at Georgia Tech, I told my co-op advisor I wanted to work for NASA JSC. I applied and had my interview with Bob Musgrove;
however, he told me they were in a hiring freeze, so I never thought I would get hired, until I received a call early in the
morning a few weeks later saying that I was accepted!
*Working*
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Sitting in the commander seat |
My first tour was spring '06 in the Orbit Flight Dynamics group of the Mission Operations Directorate. I work with
the Orbit Flight Dynamics Officers (FDO's), they are in charge for the trajectory and maneuvers of the Space Shuttle. One of
my projects was to certify this application called ChronDops, in which it would allow flight controllers to process and analyze
landing site data more rapidly. The other project I had, which was fun and time consuming, was to create a program called MAEG
that would obtain a chronological set of anchor state vectors and create and ephemeris. My second and third tour (fall'06 and summer '07)
were in the Spacesuit Systems Branch. In this group, I worked on the development of life support systems for the new suits being designed
for Lunar and Mars missions. I was able to get hands on experience in hardware, as well as be part the requirements development.
*Fun Times*
Working as a NASA Co-op, you have the flexibility to attend lectures and tours. We have had lectures with Gene Kranz, Chris Kraft,
Duane Ross, and many different Astronauts and Flight Directors. Some of the tours we have attended have been the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory,
Ellington Field, the Mission Control Center, shuttle simulators, ISS mockups, and many more.
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With Chris Kraft, the first flight director at NASA |
Besides NASA, there are volleyball, soccer, and softball teams, the usual going to the movies, beach, climbing, clubbing, basically
anything you desire to do can be done! You meet tons of people that just want to have a good time like you.
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Coop Ladies. |
Coming down to Houston to work for NASA JSC has been one of the best decisions I have made, so if you are thinking about cooping just come!
If you have any questions feel free to send me and email to johanna.e.pineiro@nasa.gov or at
gtg762w@mail.gatech.edu . Chao and good luck ;)
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Coop Softball |
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