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9 min read

Shannon Fitzpatrick Rocketed to Success

Woman with fair skin and long blonde hair looks at the camera while sitting in a blue chair in an operations console.
Fitzpatrick in the Wallops Range Control Center at an operations console.
Courtesy of S. Fitzpatrick

Name: Shannon Fitzpatrick
Title: Aeronautical and astronautical engineering
Formal Job Classification: Branch Head, Navigation and Control and Mission Systems Engineering
Organization: Code 598, Guidance, Navigation and Control and Mission Systems Engineering Branch, Wallops Flight Facility

What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? How do you help support Goddard’s mission?

I am the branch head of the Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) and Mission Systems Engineering branch. I lead the employees of our branch as we work across various NASA projects related to GNC and systems engineering. I am responsible for personnel matters such as staffing and hiring. I am also responsible for laying out the vision for the organization, where we want to go in the future and how we want to grow certain capabilities.

Did something happen when you were young that inspired you to work in the space industry?

Growing up in rural Michigan, my father was always very interested in astronomy. He challenged me when I was in third grade. If I got 100 percent on all my spelling tests for the whole school year, he would buy me a telescope. I did and he bought me a telescope. Ever since I got that telescope, I was hooked on space. I was hyper focused the rest of my life on having a career in space and making this happen.

Around the same time frame, Challenger happened. I remember watching on television and not understanding what was going on. When it exploded, I didn’t realize that the explosion was not supposed to happen. Then I saw my mother was upset and that the newscasters were also upset. I immediately decided that I wanted to go into the space industry to try to help solve those kinds of problems. I even had a little pink diary with a tiny padlock. I wrote, “I want to be an astronaut.” I even dotted my i’s with hearts.

Page from Fitzpatrick's diary where she says that she wants to become an engineer.
Page from Fitzpatricks diary
Courtesy of S. Fitzpatrick

A few years later, my family was celebrating the Fourth of July with fireworks. My father held one, lit it, and due to a faulty fuse, it exploded in his hand and he lost part of two fingers. I saw it all happen. Later in my career, this incident made me want to study propellants and explosives for rocket propulsion and at the same time gave me tremendous respect for them. I never take rockets for granted. I saw first-hand what propellant can do. I am overly cautious now and always respect them.

I went to Purdue University because they have the most astronaut alumni for a non-military university and the best rocket propulsion program, including the only large-scale rocket propulsion laboratory open to students. I did not apply to any other schools. I received a bachelor’s and a master’s in aeronautical and astronautical engineering with a focus in rocket propulsion and aerodynamics.

When did you first work on a spacecraft?

While an undergraduate, I had two summer internships at the Naval Research Laboratory’s propulsion group, working on a component for the space station. I was 19, I had taken only a few engineering courses and I was in the clean room, in a bunny suit, actually working on a spacecraft! I was around all the hardware being prepared for space! The component, however, did not end up flying because it was a backup component which was not later needed. The experience was intimidating but also very inspiring and motivating.

Older photo of woman wearing a blue lab coat, white gloves, and a blue hair cover and is working on a control module
Fitzpatrick, aged 19, working at NRL on the Interim Control Module for the ISS.
Courtesy of S. Fitzpatrick

How did you get your two patents?

After NRL had a budget cut, during graduate school, I got an internship at China Lake in the high desert of southern California. I went from the Midwest to the bare, barren, 120 degree, high desert. China Lake is very remote, which allows them to do a lot of testing. China Lake is also huge, bigger than the state of Rhode Island.

After graduation, I started working full time at China Lake where I remained for five years. I worked on combustion instability research on the Trident D5 system, the ICBM that launches off of a submarine. I also researched hypersonic combustion. We developed a scramjet combustion testing device resulting in my receiving two patents at the age of 26.

Excluding your current work, what was some of the most interesting work you have done?

After China Lake, I left government service and took a job with Aerojet in Sacramento, California. This was some of the most interesting work I have ever done! I was project manager of the attitude control system of the Standard Missile 3 (SM-3), considered the crown jewel of the Missile Defense Agency, part of the Department of Defense. This is like “shooting a bullet with a bullet,” because the theory is that we would send up a missile to take down a missile. Initially I was the project manager for only the attitude control subsystem. After a few years, I was promoted to be the program manager for the overall Divert Attitude Control System.

What was one of your most interesting projects at Wallops?

In December 2010, I came to NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia as a mission manager for the Sounding Rocket office. As a mission manager, I led a team of engineers from cradle to grave on a sounding rocket mission including design, fabrication, integration, flight testing and launch operations. A sounding rocket is much smaller than a missile. We integrate a payload into our sounding rockets and then launch them to obtain science data.

After 18 months, I became a government employee again working in the Range and Mission Management Office for Jay Pittman. I was a project manager with several projects, mainly involving launch operations.

One of the highlights of my time with that office is when I was the deputy project manager for the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), a really interesting project with a lot of engineering development. What made this really interesting is that it was the first time that Wallops launched to the Moon. It was also the first time we were using a Minotaur 5 rocket. The project was large scoped and fast paced. It was also my first mission launching an Expendable Launch Vehicle (ELV). We handed out Moon Pies and stuck LADEE stickers on them as souvenirs.

One woman and four men sit looking at computers side by side in the range control center
Fitzpatrick in the Range Control Center during LADEE launch ops.
Courtesy of S. Fitzpatrick

How did you feel when you were sitting in the launch control center running the count down for your project?

It was not my first count down, but it was my first one for such a large mission.

My heart was racing. It was extremely exhilarating. Everyone cheered when it launched successfully on the very first second, on our very first launch window, on our very first try. It was such hard work, so many hours for so many months. Launches are a culmination of a lot of hard effort and we all feel a lot of pride in seeing something we spent years working on go up in space.

You hear the sound. You feel the rumble in your chest. Then you look up in the skies. Sometimes the launch is over very quickly and you want it to last longer. Our Antares launches are slower launches and our sounding rockets are very fast.

The launch control center does not have windows but we do have large-screen TVs. My only regret is that, unlike my friends and family, I could not be outside to see the launch. However, I have seen other launches.

The launch took me back to when I was a little girl and I wanted to be an astronaut and launch something to the Moon. And here I was, launching something to the Moon.

As a new supervisor, what lessons have you learned?

Over the years, I have managed maybe 30 projects for the range. As a project manager, I focused more on personnel, schedule, budget and risk and less on actual engineering. I jumped on the opportunity to become a branch head for this branch because I had the SM-3 GN&C background. I have been in this position for less than a year.

The most important lesson that I am learning daily is to always keep in mind our overall goal of where we want our organization to go, to always keep that vision. It is easy to get bogged down in the weeds. I now need to constantly strategize about how to move our organization forward towards our vision. One of the things I am focusing on is bringing our mission systems engineering organization more to the forefront of Wallops projects.

Woman with blonde hair and fair skin stands in front of a rocket
Fitzpatrick during the ORS-3 mission during my time as the Dep. Project Manager with the Wallops Range and Mission Management.
Courtesy of S. Fitzpatrick

Who is your mentor?

I adore Jay and love working with him. He always has a grand vision, not only for the range but for Wallops. He was my supervisor for a time and now that he is in Greenbelt, I miss him.

In addition to strategizing, he always listens to his employees and tries to be proactive in solving any problem. He also motivates his employees by listening and caring and also by speaking about his vision.

He is an idea guy and gets people excited about what he and they are doing.

Is there something surprising about your hobbies that people do not generally know?

My current hobbies are my two boys who are just 18 months and 7 years. I’m a “boy mom” for two rough and tumble guys. I grew up a major tomboy in rural Michigan, so this is ideal for me. When I do have free time, which is rare, I like to exercise and I love backpacking and hiking in the mountains.

How would you describe yourself?

Once when I interviewed for a job, I came up with a mnemonic using the first letter of my first name to describe myself:

S is for strong work ethic
H is for hard working and honest
A is for ambitious
N is for no nonsense
N is for nurturing
O is for organized
N is for nimble-witted.

By Elizabeth M. Jarrell
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center