Amelie G. Ramirez, director of the Salud America! Get your Health Equity Report Card! Learn More. This success story was produced by Salud America! The stories are intended for educational and informative purposes. References to specific policymakers, individuals, schools, policies, or companies have been included solely to advance these purposes and do not constitute an endorsement, sponsorship, or recommendation. Stories are based on and told by real community members and are the opinions and views of the individuals whose stories are told.
As a mission specialist aboard the space shuttle Challenger in , Guion S. Bluford became the first African American to travel into space. High school teacher Christa McAuliffe was the first American civilian selected to go into space. She died in the explosion of the space shuttle 'Challenger' in Astronaut, military pilot, and educator, Neil Armstrong made history on July 20, , by becoming the first man to walk on the moon. Alan Shepard became one of the original seven Mercury program astronauts in He later commanded the Apollo 14 flight.
The worst times that I had at NASA were after we lost Shuttle Columbia [in , when the spacecraft broke up while returning to Earth, killing seven astronauts]. I had just gotten into a management position, and I was representing the crew office in mission control that morning.
It was the absolute worst thing that can ever happen. It was difficult personally, and for everybody that worked at NASA and their families.
We had a playbook for bad days at NASA, so we weren't just making up things on the fly. I was one of the people that day that talked to the astronauts who were on the International Space Station, to let them know what happened. It was a long day. We all tried to do two things: figure out how to best take care of [the astronauts'] families, and then understand what happened [so we could] get back to flight.
And we had to do that as a team. Some people were saying, "Well, we're never going to make it safe enough, and we shouldn't go back to flight. What we did was in the middle. We tried to understand more specifically what happened and what we needed to fix. In addition to fixing the technical issue and developing a way to inspect the shuttle on orbit, [we took] actions to address organizational causes — like the Mission Management Team going through training to improve communication.
The two and a half years after Columbia, before we got back to flight, were pretty difficult. But the fact that people had the same big goal in mind certainly made it a lot easier.
You don't want to listen to discouragement from people that don't know you. That's really telling you more about them. It doesn't say anything about you or your talents, interests or passions. As time went by, I really grew to appreciate the power of intent and what a team working together can achieve. Missions don't happen because of one individual. That teamwork aspect is something that I think I've carried with me, in every position. As an astronaut, I was already in a visible position, one where I had the opportunity to illustrate my own knowledge, contributions and teamwork.
My advice to others is to have career conversations with your supervisor — or sometimes a sponsor, if your supervisor isn't receptive — to discuss where you'd like your career to go, and what steps you can take to help improve the odds of getting there.
At one point in my career, I just assumed that my hard work and accomplishments would make it obvious that I was ready for the next level — and [I] found out that wasn't the case. I had to speak up about what I thought I was capable of doing, and what I wanted. Skip Navigation. Jennifer Liu. I found out about six months later that I was selected.
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