I Am Building SLS: Patricia Key, Lead Engineer, Boeing

Building the world’s largest tool to assemble the world’s largest rocket is a big job. I was hired by Boeing at a college job fair 14 years ago, never imagining that the work would take me to such amazing places. I chose mechanical engineering so I could have a flexible career path, but you find pretty quickly that you tend to specialize. My work has been almost entirely in space systems.

Born in Decatur, Alabama, I graduated from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. I’m now based in Huntsville. Currently most of my days are spent at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, overseeing the design, build and installation of the Vertical Assembly Center (VAC). The VAC will weld together the barrels, domes and rings to produce the massive core stage fuel tanks that will power the Space Launch System engines at launch.

Space has always had that “wow” factor for me, and it started when I was a young girl visiting my mom at work. She worked on the International Space Station for Boeing in the 1980s. Since then, I’ve attended space shuttle launches at Cape Canaveral, met astronauts, and worked on the early heavy-lift launch vehicle designs. 

Now, the SLS Program has even taken me to several foreign countries to work with our international suppliers. Since Boeing was awarded the contract to build the core stage in November 2011, I have been working in a fast-paced environment with non-stop travel — often international — while still raising two children. That takes all of my skills as a project manager and engineer to choreograph life back home while on the road.  Although I don’t exercise my own dance skills very often right now, I do participate in my daughter’s dance and my son’s baseball as often as I can. My husband and I have a lot of help from family, especially my in-laws and mom. I couldn’t do this without that support.

I tell every young engineer interested in this work to keep pushing through the challenges, and don’t give up.  It’s extremely rewarding just knowing that you are contributing to the history of the country.  And it doesn’t hurt to hear your kids tell their friends “my mommy builds rockets.”