Thursday, August 16, 2012

Space Exploration Is a Wonderful, Wild Ride

I've been part of ventures that would make your head spin
by Christine M.

I began my journey with Martin Marietta working in the publications organization in 1982, about 30 years past. Proposals were our primary business, which was wonderful because we would learn about the amazing technologies being developed in defense and the space industry. The first proposal I lead was Phase I of the Space Station Endeavor. We won—which spurred future proposals for the Space Station and as we know, is currently operational. I worked on the first Apple computers the company purchased, testing its capabilities to those of the board artist, speed, accuracy and layout freedoms. Our organization was one of the first to bring in a digital presentation system that delivered high-quality imagery in slides. Personally, I used that system to create a slide presentation viewed by President Reagan's staff while he visited the Waterton facility. Over the years, being part of numerous ventures that would make a person’s mind spin, has been a constant amazement to me on how inventive our folks truly are—to see the excitement light up in their eyes when talking about projects they are working on. I have been blessed to be part of and see not only our country move forward in the space industry, but be part of keeping our people and world safe. It’s been a wild ride!