I Like to Meet and Talk to People

Because of my personality, I'm the type of person who likes to meet and talk to people. I think it is very interesting to be able to work with real hardware that is on the vehicle. I sometimes get to see and touch the real hardware and have, on occasion, gotten to get inside a couple of the real vehicles while they were in Palmdale, California.

Over a period of time, I get to know and work with many different astronauts. They cycle through technical jobs when they're not assigned to fly, inbetween assignments, or prior to their first flight assignment. Consequently, I'll have a boss like Rick Searfoss for a year, then he'll get assigned to a mission and start training, which he is now preparing to do. My new boss will be Eileen Collins, the first female shuttle pilot, who is also a very good friend of mine. She was at training at the VMS on Monday, June 16th.