ISU students who have worked with staff and equipment at NASA’s

Kennedy Space Center say the destruction of the space shuttle

Columbia has only strengthened their commitment to their career

goals.

Jill Cattrysse, senior in aerospace engineering, and David

Shoemaker, senior in mechanical engineering, are two of a select

few college students who participate in cooperative education

programs at NASA. Both have spent three sessions at Kennedy Space

Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., during the last three years,

alternating semesters of school and work in a typical engineering

co-op format.

Cattrysse said she has wanted to become an astronaut since she

was in ninth grade. “I didn’t want to do something plain, and I

wanted to do something that interested me,” she said.

Cattrysse said the space shuttle accident on Feb. 1 led her to

reflect on that goal.

“I kind of found myself re-evaluating what I wanted to do,” she

said. “The more I thought about it, it’s not any more dangerous for

astronauts to go into space today than [in the past]. Every single

one of them accepts those risks. I am willing to take those risks

to accomplish my goals.”

Shoemaker said the morning Columbia was scheduled to land was

full of activity and surprise.

“I got a call from another co-op that works down there now. I

was still asleep, so he had to leave a message,” he recalled. “I

listened to that message, jumped out of bed, and flipped on the

TV”

Shoemaker said since the accident he has been talking to friends

from NASA and learning about the mood there.

He also said he spent some time talking to a mentor assigned to

him during his time as a co-op at the space center.

Cattrysse said she had talked with some friends who work at the

facility, and thought she had an idea of what the employees there

are going through.

“The people down there identify themselves so much with the

spacecraft,” she said. “They deal with the hardware every day.”

Shoemaker said after graduation he would like to work in the

space industry, designing the “next generation” of spacecraft at a

place like Lockheed Martin, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory or NASA

itself.

“[The accident] made me inspired to keep working on this stuff

and make it even better,” he said.

Shoemaker traces his desire to be involved in some way in space

exploration to the landing of the Mars Pathfinder vehicle on

Mars.

“July 4, 1997 … I said, ‘Yeah, I’m hooked, that’s what I want

to do,’ ” he said.

Both Cattrysse and Shoemaker said they worked on challenging

projects during each term at the space center.

“We have students at Johnson [Space Center] and Kennedy [Space

Center] pretty regularly,” said Larry Hanneman, program director of

engineering career services. He said students almost always return

from work with NASA excited about the important work they were able

to do.

Soon after Shoemaker returned from his first term in Cape

Canaveral, Hanneman said, he walked into Hanneman’s office with an

announcement.

“He said, ‘Larry, I’m not the same student I was when I left

here,’ ” Hanneman said.

After graduation, Cattrysse said she wants to work on spacecraft

design at an aerospace company. But she has an ulterior motive in

mind.

“I want to put myself in a position so that when NASA is looking

for more astronauts … I’d be a viable candidate,” she said.