Meet: Tracy Gill

Who I Am

Hello, my name is Tracy Gill. I work for NASA at the Kennedy Space Center. Specifically, I work in the Space Station Utilization Division of the Space Station and Shuttle Payloads Directorate.

What I Do

Space Station Utilization is a work area where we ready for launch experiment hardware. This experiment hardware comes from other NASA space centers, from universities around the country, and from foreign sponsors such as the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japanese Space Agency (NASDA), the Italian Space Agency (ASI), and the German Space Agency (DARA) to name a few. We install the experiment hardware we receive in or on a standard carrier so that it can fly somewhere in the space shuttle orbiter for delivery and use aboard the International Space Station.

The function of the Utilization team is to install the hardware and then test all the power, video, cooling, and data interfaces, so that we know the experiment will begin to work successfully once it reaches orbit.

Our Work Begins Before Launch

Above: A picture of me working at the MSFC POCC during the flight of the STS-94 mission.

Our work begins anywhere from a year before launch to only a few days depending on the size and the complexity of the payload. From 1990 through 1998, I worked mainly on what we called Spacelab module missions in my time at NASA, and in that era, my work area was known as Experiment Integration. You can read more about these Spacelab missions in my previous journals. Spacelab science missions were very successful but only lasted for about two weeks due to the limited time to shuttle can stay in orbit. Once the International Space Station (ISS) is operational, the type of work done in Spacelab can be done for a longer period and more efficiently on the ISS.

My Career Journey

I have been working here since January of 1990 after I graduated from the University of Florida (UF) with a bachelor's of science degree in electrical engineering. Go Gators! I knew when I was in school at UF that I wanted to work for NASA because I've always been a big fan of the space program. I was so interested in space projects that I went to school part-time for a few years to earn a Master's of Science Degree in Space Systems from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1994. And I liked school enough that I recently went back to favorite school, the University of Florida, for a year with NASA's help to work on a Master's of Science Degree in Aerospace Engineering.

Likes About Career

I have been very fortunate to be able to work in Experiment Integration and now Utilization where I have been able to gain a lot of valuable experience doing "hands-on" work on flight hardware and working with people from all over the United States and the world.

Archived Chats

• March 14, 2000
• January 14, 1998