“It is so different every day.”
As the Branch Head for Software Engineering at Wallops Flight Facility, Sarah Wright’s work can span from developing satellite missions to leading training opportunities to building ground-based systems for rocket launches.
If that wasn’t already enough, Wright also oversees a missions planning lab that brings all types of engineers — mechanical, electrical, software, guidance navigation and control — to figure out mission designs to complete specific objectives.
“If someone comes to us and says, ‘I want to study x-rays coming from another planet,’ we figure out the size and shape of the spacecraft they’ll need and how much power it will use,” says Wright. “We are going to rundown all the possibilities to make your ideas work.”
As a child, Wright loved to tinker. Her parents would take her to yard sales and let her buy cheap appliances, specifically for her to take apart in the garage.
“That sort of experience led me to where I am today, with a drive to understand how things work,” says Wright. “This is what NASA is ultimately all about — the desire to explore and discover and understand.”
Wright gets the most excited thinking about all of the projects her teams get to have hands-on experience with. Working on rocket launches and satellite missions is not just sitting at a computer: team members will build hardware and software on the bench, and six months later be watching the countdown from the control center console.
“You can literally see the fruits of your labor,” Wright says. “Knowing I touched a thing, I created a thing, and now it’s on orbit functioning, collecting data, talking back to me.”
Wright wants to encourage young people to seek opportunities and apply for internships. You can start your search today by visiting our careers page.
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Image Credit: NASA / Patrick Black
Text Credit: Thalia Patrinos