“I’ve spent a lot of time as a space suit test subject, testing various new development configurations of the suit. “It’s being part of a group of hardworking, dedicated people that are all coming together to do great things,” she explains. What does she like best about working at NASA? She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas A&M in 19, and joined NASA shortly after graduating, serving in the agency’s Space Life Sciences department, then moving to Shuttle Support, Advanced Space Suit Development and today serves in the Orion Crew and Service Module Development areas. “I don’t think anything can prepare you for doing a space shuttle launch and landing, but my time in College Station really did set me on the course for the rest of my life.” “It was that real-world experience that set me on the course for where I am now, so I’m thankful for it,” he adds. Pretty incredible.”īefore joining NASA, Byerly worked at several PR jobs in the Dallas area, and he started his career as a general assignments reporter for KBTX-TV, the CBS affiliate in the Bryan-College Station area. So here’s two Aggies, standing in the middle of nowhere,” one of which just landed from space. Fifteen minutes later, they pulled Mike and the rest of the crew out of the capsule, and I got to say howdy to my friend. It was this giant ‘V’ that was pink, orange, blue and yellow, like the wake off of a boat. “We were in our helicopters hovering near the landing zone, and I looked out the window and saw the plasma trail from his spacecraft as it was re-entering.

“The temperature was about minus-15 degrees, and he was landing right as the sun was coming up,” Byerly says. He also recalls when Aggie astronaut Mike Fossum landed from his latest trip aboard the International Space Station, and it was bitterly cold at the landing site in Kazakhstan.

“So here’s the first man to walk on the moon and the last man to walk on the moon, and they’re having this conversation about effective methods for landing on a planetary surface, across from me,” he says. It’s certainly not your usual ho-hum desk job.įor instance: Byerly says one day he found himself sitting between the late Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan in a meeting. “It’s one big family and you get to share an incredible bond with the people that are here.” “NASA has a lot in common with the experience you get in Aggieland,” he adds. This agency and the people that work here are pursuing a bold mission, and to be able to be one of the faces and voices that tells that story to the public is an honor.”

“But when you talk about the Aggie family, we certainly have a big one here.”Ī 1999 Texas A&M graduate, Byerly says working at NASA “is a great job because you get to touch and witness history every day. “I am told there are hundreds of Aggies here, and nobody seems to know the precise number,” Byerly says from his Houston office. He began his career at NASA in 1993 as a system engineer and was selected as an astronaut in 1998.īut exactly how many Aggies work at NASA is not quite known. His previous space flight experience included the shuttle missions STS-121 in 2006, which was a return-to-flight test mission and assembly flight to the space station, and STS-124 aboard Discovery in 2008, which was the 123 rd space shuttle flight and the 26 th shuttle flight to the space station. His most recent trip to space was last year as a member of the International Space Station in which he stayed in space for about six months while serving as commander of Expedition 29.

No doubt the most famous Aggie in space is Mike Fossum, a 1980 mechanical engineering graduate. By the end of the mission, Pailes had traveled more than 1.6 million miles and logged 97 hours in space. Pailes flew on the shuttle mission STS-51J on Atlantis in October of 1985, the maiden voyage of Atlantis. For the record, the first Aggie in space was William Pailes, who earned a master’s degree in computer science from Texas A&M in 1981 after graduating from the Air Force Academy. Josh Byerly figures he may have one of the best jobs on planet Earth and maybe even above it.īyerly serves as a public affairs officer and also as “the voice of Mission Control,” and is one of many Texas A&M University graduates currently employed at NASA.īesides providing NASA with scores of engineers and flight technicians, several Aggies have served as true astronauts.

Nasa careers spacesuit technician