It\u2019s two years until the launch of Exploration Mission 1, but Blackwell-Thompson is busier now than she\u2019s ever been in her career. This mission is the first test flight of NASA\u2019s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, which will set the stage and test the components for sending astronauts to Mars. It\u2019s the most powerful rocket NASA has ever developed, and according to Blackwell-Thompson, \u201chas the capability to take us to deep space, wherever our country might decide to go, whether that\u2019s the moon, Mars or some place entirely different.\u201d
\n\u201cThis first mission is about testing out the capabilities,\u201d she says, \u201cto make sure everything works the way it\u2019s supposed to, so that when we get ready to fly a crew a few years down the road, we\u2019ll be ready to go.\u201d
\nIn the development stage leading up to that launch, Blackwell-Thompson and her team are building new ground equipment and new flight hardware, and making sure it works together. They\u2019re putting \u201can amazing rocket\u201d together and making sure it\u2019s ready to fly. \u201cThere\u2019s a tremendous amount of work in doing that,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a more brisk pace than I had when\u00a0 we were flying during the shuttle program, and I thought I was really busy then.\u201d
\nThere\u2019s also the coordination of developing different components in three different locations. The flight hardware for the heavy lift rocket is being developed out of Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Orion, the crew module, is being developed out of Johnson Space Center in Houston. And the hardware and various components are manufactured all across the country.
\n\u201cFor me as launch director,\u201d says Blackwell-Thompson, \u201cI\u2019m also trying to look at how I build this launch team. We have a lot of expertise on the team that worked on the shuttle program, but this is a brand new rocket with brand new ground systems. You have to figure out how to get this team ready to go fly this rocket and make sure they have the expertise they need.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThere\u2019s a lot that goes into the two days
\nof launch countdown.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nShe begins to tick off some of the many parts of the process: \u201cThere is what goes into the launch itself \u2014 what does the launch countdown look like, how long is it, what\u2019s the work we need to do, how do we verify it\u2019s ready to fly.\u201d Then there are the launch commit criteria to develop, the set of rules that govern whether or not you\u2019re ready to fly on launch day, and developing launch countdown procedures and timelines.
\n\u201cThen you have to go practice it,\u201d she says, \u201cand make sure you\u2019re ready for anything that the vehicle might throw at you in a given day. You want to make sure you\u2019ve simulated the
\npotential problems, and that you run through those anomalies and you know how you\u2019re going to respond to them.\u201d
\nAnd then there are launch capabilities: fuel requirements for multiple launch attempts within a given window, imagery of the vehicle that is needed during cryogenic propellant loading and prior to launch, communication across the multitude of NASA centers on launch day, command and control system capabilities to send time-critical commands to the vehicle to get data back to make split-second calls when the countdown clock is moving.
\nShe breathes. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot that goes into the two days\u00a0of launch countdown.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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Charlie Blackwell-Thompson coordinating launch procedures.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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EVERY LAUNCH COUNTDOWN<\/b><\/p>\n
There are small moments in all of our lives that we look back on and realize were much more significant than we ever imagined. For Blackwell-Thompson, it was a class at Clemson called Software Engineering, taught by Professor James Leathrum. A course dreaded by many because it was so difficult, it ignited Blackwell-Thompson\u2019s mind and imagination and set her on the path to become the first female launch director at NASA.
\nIt was both the topic, she says, and the way Leathrum taught. \u201cHe was a phenomenal teacher,\u201d she says, \u201ca very data-driven, methodical teacher who kind of just walked you through the process. That was a great way for me to learn.\u201d
\nSo when she began interviewing for a job, and they asked her what she wanted to do, she responded that she was really interested in software verification and validation.
\nTurns out the folks at Kennedy Space Center were looking for someone to do just that.
\nBlackwell-Thompson\u2019s first job was at Kennedy Space Center, working with McDonnell Douglas as a contractor. She was hired to do software validation and verification, although the methods varied from what she had learned in class. She tested payload software (the payload is the cargo that the shuttle carried into space) and made sure that it worked well with the orbiter flight software on board the shuttle.
\nShe branched out a bit after that, working avionics systems for payloads including the Hubble Telescope, then serving as lead electrical integration engineer, responsible for all the electrical and software integration of a particular payload. In 2004, she moved over from the contractor workforce to work directly for NASA in the test director\u2019s office. Test directors are in charge of executing the launch countdown on behalf of the launch director, so they are the voices you hear on launch day, kicking off various steps of the launch. She became a certified test director, responsible for loading the cryogenic propellant into the external tank during a countdown and then became a certified launch test director, the only woman certified into that position during the space shuttle program.
\nAfter several launches, she moved into the position as chief NASA test director, where she stayed until the end of the program in 2011. When the shuttle program ended, she transitioned to the Ground Systems Development and Operations program before being selected as the launch director in 2016.
\nDespite the different roles, she\u2019s been working in the firing room since 1988, a place that feels like home for her. \u201cI say with a lot of pride that I worked a number of missions from 1988 until 2004 \u2014 dozens,\u201d she says, \u201cbut I am very proud of the fact that from our return to flight after the Columbia accident until the end of the shuttle program, I worked every launch countdown.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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\n\u201cI am also struck with admiration and appreciation for the women
\nwho came before me blazing a trail \u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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A MESSAGE FOR YOUNG WOMEN<\/b><\/p>\n
When you ask Blackwell-Thompson what it feels like to be the first female launch director at NASA, she hesitates. \u201cI get that question a lot,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s always a tough one for me.\u201d
\nShe pauses and continues. \u201cI really feel blessed to have the opportunity to lead this team. I know I\u2019m the first woman to have this job for NASA \u2014 that\u2019s a factual thing.\u00a0 But when I think of myself, I am Matt, Cody and Lhotse\u2019s mom; that\u2019s the first thing to come to mind. I am also struck with admiration and appreciation for the women who came before me blazing a trail, who have left their mark on this industry and inspired others.\u00a0 When it comes to being the launch director, I want to be the best that I can be. I want to help set the stage for something that lasts a long time.\u201d
\nJeremy Graeber, who has worked with Blackwell-Thompson since 2004, agrees with her self-assessment. \u201cWe just get the job done \u2014 figure out the challenges, get the right people together and get things done,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s how I see her.\u201d
\nGraeber and Blackwell-Thompson started in the NASA test director\u2019s office within a month or two of each other, working in different aspects of the space shuttle program, and have moved up the ranks together. \u201cI\u2019ve been her right-hand man for the last seven years,\u201d he says.
\nHowever, he\u2019s the father of two daughters and says that \u201cwhen I step back and look at how lucky I\u2019ve been to work with such a strong individual that just happens to be a woman, and that she\u2019s had the opportunity and has been clearly the right person to be in that job \u2014 for her to be a role model and an example for my daughters is just amazing.\u201d
\nEven though it\u2019s not something she thinks about a lot, Blackwell-Thompson clearly understands the significance of being the first woman. It\u2019s a situation she\u2019s familiar with, having been the only woman at the time in the NASA test director\u2019s office. She was the only woman certified as a launch NASA test director during the space shuttle program. She was only woman to ever hold the position of chief NASA test director.
\n\u201cI want my daughter and all young ladies to know that they can do anything they want,\u201d she says. \u201cTheir potential is not limited. If me being the first woman launch director sends that message to young women across the country, that\u2019s a fabulous thing, because they can do anything they can dream and plan toward. I\u2019m kind of proof of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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LEADING FROM THE HEART<\/b><\/p>\n
Dreaming and planning coupled with dedication and hard work was modeled for Blackwell-Thompson by her parents and grandparents when she was growing up in rural South Carolina. \u201cThey worked, and they farmed, and they provided food and livestock from their own land. I don\u2019t know if I appreciated it as much at the time, but it was something that was instilled in me from an early age \u2014 a strong work ethic and dedication.\u201d
\nAnd that\u2019s what she wants to pass on, both to her kids and to the young women she mentors. \u201cIt all starts with a dream. You\u2019ve got to be willing to dream and be willing to say, \u2018This is what I want.\u2019 But you have to put work with it, or it\u2019s just a dream. When you have a dream and you\u2019re willing to work for it, then it becomes a plan. And plans are implementable.\u201d
\nFinding your passion is the other lesson she wants to pass on. \u201cThat will take you far,\u201d she says. \u201cIt will take you past challenges that you come across. When you love what you do, it doesn\u2019t really feel like work.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s clear that Blackwell-Thompson has found her passion, and she shares that passion on a daily basis. Her boss, Mike Bolger, program manager for Ground Systems Development and Operations, says that he is amazed that she finds time for all that is involved in being launch director while also mentoring many female engineers at Kennedy as well as students in the local area. \u201cShe has personally inspired young women to pursue careers at NASA by telling her story and making them realize that engineering careers are open to women and are within reach,\u201d he says.
\nBolger says she initially comes across as laid-back, \u201cbut the reality is that she is a hard driving, passionate, NASA leader who gets things done,\u201d and says she \u201cdidn\u2019t get to be NASA\u2019s first female launch director for human spaceflight by accident. She came up through the ranks proving herself as technically expert, a person who meets commitments, a leader who is a natural team builder.\u201d
\nThat leadership and team building is crucial as she works toward the launch of Exploration Mission 1. \u201cPeople want to follow her,\u201d says Graeber. \u201cCharlie is able to galvanize people together \u2014 not just on a technical and engineering operations basis, but from the heart. She knows how to pull every bit of resources and best effort out of everybody, not because she\u2019s driving them to do it, but people want to go down the path she\u2019s laid out, because she\u2019s inspired them, and she does that so well.\u201d
\nHer pride is evident when she talks about the team she leads. \u201cOver the course of the shuttle program, more times than I can count, I have watched this team do amazing work and accomplish things that are very challenging, that maybe on paper, you\u2019d look and say, \u2018This can\u2019t be done.\u2019 But when you put the creative minds and the passion behind it, amazing things happen.
\n\u201cTo lead this team for this inaugural flight, I just feel blessed. That\u2019s the word that comes to mind first. It\u2019s a privilege. It\u2019s an honor to have that responsibility and to be given that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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\n\u201cWhen you have a dream and you\u2019re willing to work for it,
\nthen it becomes a plan \u2026 plans are implementable.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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A DETERMINING COURSE<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I look at the job I do today,\u201d says Blackwell-Thompson, \u201cpart of it is based on that technical foundation I got when I was in school. But there\u2019s an equal part based on how you talk and communicate, the teams you form, the relationships \u2014 the softer side of leadership.\u201d
\nShe\u2019s quick to credit her upbringing and her parents for that preparation, but also those team projects in engineering at Clemson, \u201cwhere you had to learn to divide and conquer the work and come together as a team and then present it. It didn\u2019t matter if you had a superstar in your group, it was really about the work as a whole and how you had to come together as a team to get it done.\u201d
\nThat part of her education, says Blackwell-Thompson, is just as much if not more in line with what she does today. \u201cI feel like I came out as prepared as I could possibly be. I look back, and I am really glad that I had the opportunity to go to school at Clemson.\u201d
\nBut it was that class, that single class, and that one professor, that really changed her life and set her on the path that she chose. \u201cI\u2019m not sure at the time I knew how influential he was or how this one thing would change the course of my career,\u201d she says.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t exactly do software testing today. But if it hadn\u2019t been for that class, and even the method and style Dr. Leathrum taught it \u2014 it really opened up a door to where I am today. If that hadn\u2019t been available, and I hadn\u2019t ended up at Kennedy Space Center, I certainly wouldn\u2019t have ended up the launch director.\u201d
\n\u201cTo lead this team for this inaugural flight, I just feel blessed. That\u2019s the word that comes to mind first. It\u2019s a privilege. It\u2019s an honor to have that responsibility and to be given that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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