Many kids dream of becoming astronauts, but few are able to turn their dreams into reality. ISU alumnus Ted Rickerl may not have gone into space himself, but his efforts have helped others to do so.

Ever since his father became an aviator during World War II, Rickerl’s been interested in flight.

Now, 17 years later, he’s transformed his boyhood dream into a career at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston as a flight controller specializing in design, navigation, guidance and in-flight docking operations.

This summer, Rickerl watched as the shuttle Discovery — the first shuttle launched since the Feb. 2003 Columbia disaster — roared into space from a front-row seat in mission control.

Rickerl says the shuttle spent two years undergoing many changes, such as installing sensors on the wings, which would instantly alert mission control of problems.

“It’s like what you would do when you overhaul any vehicle,” he says. “Only [this is] a complex space vehicle.”

Rickerl says safety has always been a top priority at NASA and every possible hazard has been identified. There are tests that determine what needs to be fixed and whether they have been fixed successfully.

“In launch criteria, there are a few things that needed to be resolved that they had changed in the last two years,” Rickerl says.

Although he wasn’t involved in the overhaul of the Discovery shuttle, he still had a lot of preparing to do before the launch.

“I work in orbit operations and rendezvous launches,” Rickerl says. “We start preparing a year before the launch, looking at flight requirements that need to be completed and making up flight-deck procedures that the crew will need to perform during the mission.”

He says the crew then has to be trained to perform each procedure, not just from his department, but from all the departments.

“The full staff will set up in mission control for eight to nine hours while the crew are in simulators,” Rickerl said. “We’ll work for two to three days making it act like a real mission so we can correct problems. Once we get to flying, it’s pretty calm compared to the simulator.”

He says the flight itself was a long time coming and everyone was feeling more knowledgeable and prepared because of the development in technology.

“The launch is exciting but goes very quick with all that power,” Rickerl says. “We weren’t sure if they were going to launch with the weather delays, but once the first burn started off the mission, it was pretty amazing.”

Rickerl was in charge of rendezvous guidance with the space station. He planned the burns that would slowly bring Discovery closer to its destination. He used radar and a laser to ensure everything was in line before releasing control to the crew at 2,000 feet from the front door of the station. From there, Discovery made its final approach at less than an inch per second, a procedure carefully monitored by Rickerl to guarantee the shuttle wasn’t more than three degrees off of the docking.

The Discovery mission wasn’t much different than any other mission for the space station except for the new sensors on the shuttle’s wings. Rickerl says the cameras, detailed photos and sensor information made it easy to make repairs and gave confidence the entry and landing would be a success.

“It’s always great to have a successful mission, and we’ve had a lot of them,” Rickerl says. “Afterwards, we had a big party. It was great and we’re all looking forward to the next one.”