Meet: David Melendrez

Who I Am
I work for the space shuttle program Systems Engineering and Integration (SE&I) office at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), specifically in an area called Imagery Integration
(I²). We are a small group of people responsible for pulling together a coherent story for upper mission management related to inspections being performed on the Shuttle Thermal Protection System(TPS). I² is a direct result of the 2003 Columbia accident.  We now
want to make sure that every space shuttle orbiter has a healthy TPS before attempting reentry.  The way we do that is by pointing many cameras and radars at the shuttle as it lifts off, monitoring onboard cameras during ascent, and inspecting the vehicle after it reaches orbit with a variety of video and laser cameras and sensors.  It’s very complicated job but an important one.

How I Got Here
My career journey in the space program has been a long and circuitous one, often strewn with potholes, setbacks, and frustrations.  But I was determined enough (could also be read as “stubborn” enough) not to let obstacles get in the way of my dream.  You may often hear people say “if you dream it, you can do it”, or “you can do anything you set your mind to”.  I wish I could say that was true.  But life has taught me a very hard lesson: it is not just your skill and enthusiasm that get you places, a good deal of luck and timing are required – two things that frequently escaped my reach.  But eventually, after many years of refusing to give up, I found that even they managed to line up in my favor.

The Space Bug
As a kid I always had a fascination with space.  I remember watching the Apollo moon landings when I was very young and loved things like Star Trek and Star Wars.  But by the time I became a freshman in high school I had more or less thought that I was going to be an architect.  Then the PBS series Cosmos appeared on TV in 1980 and everything changed.  All that stuff about the planets, stars, space exploration, science…I was hooked.  I decided I was going to be an astronaut, I just didn’t know how I was going to get there yet.

College & Grad School
Unlike most of the people I have worked with at JSC, I am not an engineer.  I originally was going to major in the usual engineering, either aerospace or electrical, but eventually settled on science - geology in particular.  I thought a good way to get into the space business would be to study the Moon and Mars. During the summer of 1986 I was lucky enough to get an internship in Houston co-sponsored by the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) and JSC.  My project involved image processing and mapping martian landforms.  That internship is what really got my foot in the NASA door and set me on track for a space career.   I graduated cum laude with a B.S. in geology from Cal Poly Pomona in 1988 and in 1991 I graduated from the University of Arizona with an M.S. in planetary geology and remote sensing.  Having a degree in planetary science was good but I still wanted to be closer to actual space operations.

First Job
My first job after grad school was at Arizona State University (ASU) - ironically the main rival to my graduate alma mater. I was hired to be the mission planner for the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) instrument on board the Mars Observer spacecraft, which was launched in September 1992. It was very exciting to be participating in the first U.S. mission to Mars since Vikings 1 and 2, in 1976. Unfortunately, the spacecraft malfunctioned in August 1993, just three days before entering Mars orbit. All contact was lost and the mission was eventually abandoned. Many theories have been proposed for the accident but it was most likely due to a failure of the valves in the propellant system. We will never know for sure exactly what happened and it was a terrible blow to all of us on the program.

Back to California
Just when I thought I had found my first little niche in space, the carpet was ripped out from under me. Work was begun immediately on a replacement mission for Mars Observer called Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), but full operational funding would not be restored for at least another year or two. So, my job went away in January 1994, and I had no choice but to leave Phoenix and move back home with my parents in Southern California. Collecting unemployment with a master's degree and looking for a job at the depths of a recession was a pretty unpleasant experience. But at the same time it was nice to be back with my family. I interviewed for several jobs with the Galileo and Cassini missions at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and even applied for a job with the CIA.  No luck on all fronts.

A Glimmer
Finally in August of 1994, my former boss at ASU called. It's a conversation I will remember for a long time. He said, "Dave, how are your image processing skills?" I said, "Uh, since grad school? A little rusty." "Well, what can we do to entice you to come back?" he asked. It took me all of a minute or two to give him an answer.  So in a blink, my life had finally begun to turn around. This new job at ASU was for a NASA-funded program doing remote sensing and image processing for the city of Scottsdale, Arizona. It was great to be back among friends working with satellite and aircraft digital multispectral images, which was my specialty in graduate school. And with MGS coming along, I was in position to become the new TES II mission planner. I look back on those months in Phoenix from September 1994 through May 1995 as a very good time in my life and I will always be indebted to Dr. Phil Christensen at ASU for fighting so hard to keep me on as part of his TES team.

Hey Dave...Remember That Job You Wanted?
Way back in March of 1991, I had interviewed for a job here at JSC in shuttle flight planning. Unfortunately, NASA had just been slapped with a government hiring freeze so although they said they wanted to hire me, they couldn't because of flat budgets and cutbacks. The following year I again interviewed for a job at JSC, this time in space station operations planning with Barrios Technology, as mission operations contractor. I was almost offered the job but was again denied due to a budget cut. I kept in touch with the manager at Barrios for the next few years and in March of 1995 I got a phone call from him asking if I was still interested in the ops planning job.  I couldn't believe it. After all those years of waiting, trying, and hoping, I was finally being given the chance to work in the manned space program.  I was sad to leave my friends at ASU, but they understood this was a dream of mine.  As I was to Phil Christensen at ASU, I will forever be thankful to Howard Jones at Barrios for remembering me and finally giving me my first job at JSC.

Working at JSC

Ops Planning
My first job at JSC in ops planning was within the Mission Operations Directorate (MOD). The talented and dedicated people in MOD are the ones who really make manned spaceflight work.  They are the flight controllers, trainers, book managers, etc. who work so hard to prepare the crews and then support each flight on console in the Mission Control Center (MCC).  I was so excited to finally be a flight controller myself, when I would walk up to the MCC I would often think to myself that this has got to be one of the coolest jobs in the world. Ops planning is the International Space Station (ISS) equivalent of the shuttle flight planners.  They build and maintain the timelines and daily plans that the astronauts use on orbit.  I worked numerous shuttle flights before the ISS was launched in order to gain valuable console experience, and by 1998 I had amassed so much console time I was selected to be trained as one of the first four ops planners to be certified to work in the MCC ISS front room.  I was the lead ops planner for STS-96, the shuttle’s first return to the ISS after it was initially launched. In all I accumulated over 3000 hours of console time supporting shuttle and ISS operations in the MCC, with over 2000 of those in the ISS front room.  Besides working on console, while in Ops Planning I also helped develop many of our web sites and tools that are still used for realtime mission support.  Some of my claims to fame include building the tool that generated the first web pages ever used in space on STS-90, building the first generation ISS onboard website, and building the MCC website that remains the primary web-based user interface for all console operators in the MCC.  I also designed the Ops Planning group patch.

Oh Yeah…the Astronaut Thing
I actually did finally apply to be an astronaut in 1997.  It felt like a ritual walk to the holy land as I carried my application to the selection office.  My envelope was placed on a very large, growing pile of other applications and I walked back out the door.  Unfortunately I never heard from them. I renewed my application the following cycle but let it lapse after that. As my career as a flight controller advanced, I realized that I was perfectly happy doing the things I was doing in the MCC and training the astronauts on the ground.  Even though I didn’t make it into space, I have no regrets.  I would have regretted it if I had never even tried.

A New Direction
After about 8.5 years in Ops Planning, I found that it was time to move on to something different within MOD.  In February 2003 I moved over to the Robotics Systems group to train as a flight controller for the robotic arms onboard the shuttle and ISS.  Ironically my first day on the job was two days after the Columbia accident.  It was a somber experience starting a new job with such a depressing mood hanging over the space center.  I didn’t recognize it at the time, but the Columbia accident would very much shape my career in robotics and beyond.

Return to Flight
Soon after joining robotics, I was lucky enough to be asked to participate in the shuttle’s return to flight on STS-114.  I became the lead shuttle mission designer for the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS), the 50-foot boom extension to the shuttle’s robotic arm housing video cameras and laser sensors used to survey the exterior of the orbiter.During the 2.5 years after the Columbia accident, I would often be asked by people outside NASA if we were bored because no shuttles were flying.  On the contrary, we were very, very busy designing new hardware, coming up with new ops concepts, training the crew on new systems, and writing procedures for things that had never been attempted before, all on what seemed like painfully short schedules.  I was ecstatic to be right in the middle of it all, in fact helping to lead the way on the robotics front which was playing a pivotal role in the success of orbiter TPS inspections. As it turned out, STS-114 taught us a lot.  The flight came off well, but we found things we could do better next time (the nature of spaceflight).  One MCC tradition involves “hanging the plaque” following the mission.  The flight directors choose the console team that excels above the rest in their performance during the mission and that team is given the honor of hanging the mission plaque on the wall in the MCC front room.  For 114 the Shuttle (and Station!) robotics teams each got to hang the plaques in their respective front rooms.  It was one of the true highlights of my career to have worked with such good people, successfully completing an important milestone for the shuttle program.

Up and Out
Even good things come to an end, sometimes sooner than expected.  As much as I was enjoying my new career in robotics, shortly after STS-114 I was presented with an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.  For 10.5 years I had worked at JSC as a contractor but had long been trying to hire-on with NASA itself.  Unfortunately, budget cuts, hiring freezes and other things always managed to prevent me from taking that last step in my career.  And just as I said earlier that luck and timing play huge roles in career growth, it was now my turn to be lucky by being in the right place at the right time.  I had the experience they were looking for and was fortunate enough to finally be offered a NASA civil service position in October 2005.  So now I work in Imagery Integration trying to keep the shuttles flying safely through the remainder of the program.

Follow Your Dreams
As I said earlier, there are no career guarantees in life.  No matter how hard you try for something, there is always a chance that selection decisions will be beyond your control.  But what you can control is working hard and going after the things you enjoy.  Otherwise, you may regret not having made the attempt.  Never compromise on following your dreams and doing your best.  In my case, I was stubborn enough not to give up and happily it paid off.  I have occasionally thought of going back to geology or doing other things with my career, and I may some day, but not yet.  I am always drawn back to space and have come to realize, “yeah…this is where I belong.”  I can’t imagine working anywhere other than the space program.

Hobbies
My life is only mostly consumed by space.  My wife also works at NASA (there are a lot of NASA couples around here) and outside of work we enjoy bicycling, camping, hiking, and theatre. We are both members of a local community theatre group and we try to put on about three shows a year (me on stage, her behind the piano).  I also maintain our website at www.unitedplayers.org.