newsminer.com

Photo by Eric Engman

FAIRBANKS - Astronaut ranks up there as one of the most popular career choices for 10-year-olds, along with U.S. president and cowboy, but Tess Caswell never gave up the dream.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks senior has earned a job at the United States Space Alliance as a flight controller for the International Space Station even before she graduated.

Caswell proved she was ready to reach for the stars with three space-related internships.

The first one with the Boeing Company where she analyzed thermal data and space shuttle environmental control and life support data.

She followed that with an elite internship with the NASA Academy, where she was one of

18 interns. The group consisted of college students from across the nation and a member from England and one from France.

The academy focused on preparing the students for future leadership roles in NASA or other space organizations. Plus, there were field trips to Florida to see a space shuttle launch and Colorado to learn from a private Astronaut training facility.

“We were a tight-knit group, a high-achieving group with a lot in common,” Caswell said.

She rounded out her internship experience this summer by looking at environmental and thermal issues for the United Space Alliance.Caswell said it was a topic she was familiar with because of her internship at Boeing.

Caswell also did mission control work and was a test student for lessons being developed for new astronauts.

She was on the way to making Houston her second home. All three internships saw her survive three humid summers in the Texas city and she also returned for a trip in NASA’s infamous “vomit comet.” Caswell was part of the Alaska Microgravity Team, the first team from the state to participate in the Reduced Gravity Student Opportunities program. The team worked beside other teams from universities such as Yale and Brown.

“We were worried we were out of our league,” Caswell said.

But her fears were unfounded. Caswell said the team was up to par and got along well with the other teams.

Some of her highlights were hanging out in the hangar at Ellington Field while military and NASA exercises were being carried out, and the physiological training. For one of the exercises, the students had to learn how to recognize a loss of cabin pressure by looking at their fellow shipmates’ reactions.

“We had to take turns taking off our masks and experience no oxygen,” Caswell said.

But Caswell wasn’t only enthusiastic about the activities in space, she was also excited by the land-based activities, namely student outreach. The team spoke at schools in Fairbanks and in other Alaska cities about careers in science and engineer and ways to make them happen.

One of the stops was Caswell’s hometown of Soldotna. The team was booked for three days of classroom talks and presentations about everything space-related.

Caswell said interacting with students was one of her favorite aspects of the work.

“Young kids have such a fascination with outerspace,” she said.

Most recently, Caswell served as project manager for the launch of a student-built payload. The payload had been in development for the past 6 years and its launch kicked off the 2009 launch season at Poker Flats Research Range.

Caswell worked on the payload for the past three years and as project manager she was in charge of coordination between the team and other groups such as the Poker Flats staff and the Japanese guests. The payload included four instruments built by Japanese students, some ofwhom traveled to Fairbanks to see the launch and collect data.

Devin Hahne worked with Caswell on the payload and the microgravity team. He described her as very enthusiastic about her work.

“She’s on fire about space,” he said.

After working closely with her in the lab throughout the years, he said he has come to admire and look up to her knowledge. Hahne said the time spent in the lab has taught the whole rocketry team to be friends and how to overcome challenges and to learn with and about each other.

“The whole experience has been uplifting to me,” he said.

Hahne isn’t the only one who thinks Caswell is out of this world.

“She’s done a great job and she is so knowledgeable,” said Daniel Peter, who worked with Caswell on the student payload.

Even though Caswell has accomplished a lot at UAF, she said she didn’t originally plan to attend college in Alaska. After deciding to be an astronaut at the age of 10, Caswell focused her academics to get into the U.S. Air Force Academy for her college education. She graduated as valedictorian at Soldotna High School and was accepted to the academy but after entering as a basic cadet, she realized it would not be a good fit and returned to the state three weeks before the UAF semester started.

Caswell said she realized the strength of the engineering program and the opportunities, such as the rocket program, that were available to her when she started classes at UAF.

Through those opportunities and her hard work, Caswell has launched a career and fulfilled a childhood dream.

“I think it’s going to be awesome,” she said. “I feel pretty fortunate, pretty excited.”

Contact Christi Hang at 459-7590.