Meet: Lisa Shore

Who I am and What I do
I work as one of the Space Shuttle flight controllers in the Mission Control Center (MCC). My exact job title is Flight Dynamics Officer. Every position in the MCC has a call sign and ours is FDO, pronounced fido. The FDO job is divided into three different phases: ascent, on-orbit, and entry. I've been certified to work all three phases but have been concentrating on being an ascent FDO most recently.

The ascent FDO monitors the trajectory during the launch and makes sure that the orbiter gets into the correct orbit around the earth. If something goes wrong during the launch, like an engine going out or a leak in the cabin, then it is the FDO's job to determine if the orbiter can continue on into space or if it must abort the mission.

Aborting the mission could mean returning to the launch site, landing in Africa or Spain, or going around the Earth and landing at one of the U.S sites. All of these decisions must be made very quickly because the shuttle uses up its entire launch propellant in about eight and a half minutes. Since the Challenger accident, there has never been an abort during the ascent.

The ascent FDO also figures out when and how long the orbiter needs to fire its rocket engines to insert it into the correct orbit around the Earth. If the orbiter is supposed to rendezvous with another object in space, like the Hubble Space Telescope or the Space Station, then the Ascent FDO must also figure out the best time to launch. If the launch doesn't happen within a certain period of time, called the launch window, then the orbiter won't be able to make the rendezvous.

Since we only fly at most eight flights a year, I spend a lot of time training and planning for the next mission. As part of our training we participate in big simulations (sims) where the astronauts get in a cockpit simulator and we support from the MCC just like we would during a real mission. The training team makes sure that we see a lot more failures in the sims than we ever would in real life. It's kind of like playing in a big video game that you get so involved in you forget it's not for real.

I also spend a lot of time working on software development. I don't do any actual programming myself. I define requirements for what I want the software to do, work with the programmer to get it right, and then test it. I'm working on a project now that allows FDOs to train without having to run a big simulation in the MCC. Not only will it save money but it will allow the FDO to train whenever they want to, which will hopefully shorten the length of time it takes to get certified.

The best part about my job is that I really feel involved in the missions. You get a real feeling of accomplishment after a successful mission. The worst part of my job is all of the paperwork that we have to do to document all of our procedures and software. It's very important that everything gets documented, but it's just not my favorite thing to do.

I am a person who loves to go to concerts. I'll stand in line for hours just to get good seats for one of my favorite bands. I also like to play sports such as softball, golf, billiards and skating.

Growing Up
I was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and lived there until I was eight years old, when my parents got divorced. We moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with my Mom and lived there until I was 14. Finally we moved to Royal Oak, Michigan, where I finished out high school.

When I was in Lauderdale Lakes Middle School, I wanted to be a geologist or an archeologist. I really liked digging in the dirt looking for things. At some point, I decided that I wanted to be an astronaut and fly on a mission out of the solar system.

As a kid, I liked to read Nancy Drew mysteries because you could get through the whole book in a couple of hours. I also loved sci-fi movies. I spent many Saturday mornings watching Creature Feature Double Feature. I especially liked the movies with space aliens in them. Watching all of those sci-fi movies probably had something to do with my desire to explore outerspace.

After living in Florida, and then moving to Michigan in the middle of winter, I decided that I wanted to live some place warm. When I graduated from college I only sent my resume to companies in warm places, which is one of the reasons I ended up working at the Johnson Space Center.

Family
My mom, stepfather, and sister still live up in Michigan, in the suburbs of Detroit. My dad and stepmother live just outside of Philadelphia. I consider Philly my hometown and love to visit there. It's so much a part of American history that there's always something to go see or do. And, of course, I have to get my Philly cheesesteak and pretzel fix every so often.

For as long as I can remember, my family has always gone to the Jersey shore in the summertime. We usually rent a house in Ocean City and spend the days at the beach and the evenings on the boardwalk. My mom visits Houston at least once a year. We take short trips to the cities around Houston, like San Antonio or New Orleans, and spend our time shopping, eating, and sightseeing.

Personal
I'm single. I don't have any children, but I have two dogs named Harley and Radar, two cats named Niki and Parker, two rabbits named Spot and Thumper that I rescued from the SPCA, and a turtle named Herbie that lives in my swimming pool. Herbie and I have been together the longest. I got him when I was a junior in college, and he just turned 15 years old. He started out the size of a quarter and now he's about the size of a double meat whopper. He loves to sit on the float with me when I'm in the pool.

I moved to Houston, Texas right after I graduated from college and got a job at the Johnson Space Center. I've been here for over 13 years. Houston's landscape isn't as pretty as up north, but you can't beat the weather in the winter.

Career Path
I graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering. I interviewed for jobs while I was still at school and was offered a job designing the on-orbit portion of shuttle missions when I graduated. I moved to Houston and started work on January 6, 1986. Twenty-two days later, the Challenger exploded. It was a very sad time, but it also made people determined to never let it happen again. We spent the next three years training and improving all of the procedures used to design and launch a shuttle mission.

I changed jobs and went into real-time operations in January of 1990. This is when I began training to become an Orbit FDO. After that I went on to get certified as an Entry FDO and finally as an Ascent FDO. I've worked over 30 missions so far. I'll probably work launches for a few years and then figure out what I want to do next.

Future Plans and Goals
I'm not sure what my future holds. I'd like to stay in the space business because it's just such an interesting place to be. It's really great working with people who believe what they're doing is important. Nobody works in aerospace to get rich, they do it because some part of them is fascinated by space and they want to be part of its exploration.

One day I would like to visit the pyramids in Egypt. I've also toyed with the idea of getting an advanced degree, but I want to have a plan in mind first and not just get a degree for the sake of having one. I'm still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.

Archived Chats

• March 21, 2000