RoundupReads Christi Worstell helps provide the power to fly

Christi Worstell helps provide the power to fly

2013-11-13
Space and engineering sparked Christi Worstell’s interest at an early age. Today she’s using that spark to provide electricity for NASA’s new human exploration vehicle, the Orion spacecraft.
 
“My father really influenced my decision to pursue a career in engineering,” said Worstell, who is currently an electrical test engineer for Orion’s Assembly, Test & Launch Operations (ATLO) group. “He was an engineer and he inspired me at a young age to pursue math and engineering.” 
 
Worstell’s journey for turning her interest and into a reality began in her sophomore year of college when she accepted a co-operative (co-op) education position, now called a NASA Pathway Internship, at Johnson Space Center. She spent four semesters as a NASA co-op while pursuing an electrical engineering degree at Texas A&M University.
 
Two of the semesters were spent in the shuttle electrical generation and illumination (EGIL) group of JSC’s Mission Operations Directorate, which was the flight control group responsible for monitoring the electrical systems of the space shuttle. When Worstell came back to NASA after graduating, the EGIL group became her permanent home, and she supported 27 shuttle flights. Proving exceptional at her job, she became the lead for the group for the last two years of the Space Shuttle Program (SSP).
 
As the SSP came to an end, Worstell left with a lot of good experience and a desire for a new opportunity. At that time, a position opened allowing Mission Operations Directorate personnel to provide support for the ATLO group for Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor on NASA’s new Orion spacecraft. Worstell, eager to broaden her skills, leaped at the chance for a new experience.
  
“I volunteered for the position, not knowing exactly what my role would be,” Worstell said. “Once I got on board, I just jumped in.”
 
Worstell admits that while taking on a new career opportunity was exciting, the incentive to work at Lockheed’s Orion facility in Colorado, a place she has always wanted to live, made the decision that much easier. For Worstell, moving to Colorado meant being able to enjoy some of her favorite activities, such as mountain biking, backpacking, hiking and winter sports in one of the nation’s most beautiful mountainous and snowy regions.
 
But there were professional incentives, as well.
 
“At the same time that I joined the ATLO group, the person who was writing the procedure for Orion’s power was leaving,” Worstell said. “So I begin working on it and then was officially assigned to the task because I had proven my capabilities.”
 
That was just two years ago. Now Worstell’s procedures are being put to the test as Orion is powered on for the first time. Flipping the switch on its avionic system the last week in October marked a major milestone as Orion kicked off the final year of preparations for its first mission, Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1).
 
“It’s pretty exciting to finally get to the real thing that you’ve been working toward for two years,” Worstell said. “The power on of the Orion spacecraft has really helped us to see that with every milestone met, we are getting closer to liftoff for EFT-1 and future deep-space missions.”
 
Just like any other vehicle, Orion needs electrical power to run all of its essential systems, including the vehicle management computer, software and avionics boxes. The test procedures and scripts that Worstell authored, with the support of others in the Orion program, helped to integrate the major avionics boxes into the crew module, connect them and then power them on. They also load the software that is responsible for controlling the vehicle during the mission. 
 
“What Christi is doing is unique and a great example of NASA providing critical skills to a prime contractor for mutual benefit,” said Orion Deputy Project Manager Mark Kirasich.
 
Last week Orion’s initial power-on test was successfully completed over a five-day period at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, with Worstell behind the “switch.” The first power up took several days, as the avionics boxes were incrementally integrated into the system. On launch day for EFT-1, the power on will only take a few minutes.
 
Now that Orion’s power-on test has been completed, Worstell will continue to support more functional testing at KSC’s Operations and Checkout Facility, including providing support for other engineers as a prime test engineer, as well as continuing the development of other test procedures.