{"id":396,"date":"2018-06-20T13:40:43","date_gmt":"2018-06-20T13:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/space\/?p=396"},"modified":"2024-02-06T15:30:57","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T15:30:57","slug":"aae-alum-bolinger-eager-to-take-next-step-at-nasa-as-flight-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/space\/aae-alum-bolinger-eager-to-take-next-step-at-nasa-as-flight-director\/","title":{"rendered":"AAE alum Bolinger eager to take next step at NASA, as flight director"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Allison Bolinger was happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ridiculously so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As deputy chief for NASA\u2019s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, Bolinger (BSAAE \u201904) enjoyed directing the day-to-day operations of its 6.2-million-gallon pool utilized to train astronauts for spacewalks by imitating zero gravity of space.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Bolinger\"<\/figure>

Bolinger (BSAAE ’04) (Photo courtesy of NASA)<\/p><\/div>\n

So when the opportunity arose to apply for the new class of NASA flight directors, Bolinger hesitated. Because she loved where she was. And because she remembered what happened the last time she applied.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In 2015, Bolinger thought she was ready to make the leap. She felt her experience as a flight controller and instructor in the Extravehicular Activities (EVA) group, essentially training astronauts for spacewalks, had sharpened the leadership and decision-making skills, among other things, required to become a flight director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But she wasn\u2019t selected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And she was \u201cdevastated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt like, \u2018I\u2019m great. I\u2019ve got really good things to bring to the office. I\u2019ve got a good head on my shoulders. I\u2019m ready for this challenge.\u2019 When they said, \u2018Thanks, but no thanks,\u2019 I was depressed,\u201d Bolinger says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, she\u2019d moved from working as the lead spacewalk flight controller to running the NBL, a job she described as a great change of pace and a more relaxed work lifestyle that had her \u201creally, really happy.\u201d So why would she leave that? For a more stressful, longer-hour type situation? Especially when that meant revisiting the emotions and the disappointment from the last time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simple, really: Because though Bolinger\u2019s initial childhood aspirations may have changed \u2013 shifting from astronaut to training them to operating the lab that offers training \u2013 she\u2019d never really<\/em> given up on the ultimate goal at NASA she identified as a 19-year-old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, during one of her co-op rotations at NASA while a Purdue student, Bolinger heard Gene Kranz speak. Kranz, \u201cthe guy<\/em>,\u201d one of NASA\u2019s first flight directors who led the Apollo 13 mission. And she knew perhaps the most rewarding piece of being involved in EVAs was being on the console, having to make real-time decisions and directing astronauts who were outside their spacecraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it was time to try again.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Bolinger\"<\/figure>

Bolinger, who returns to Purdue’s campus on occasion, snapped this picture with the Armstrong statue in 2013.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWhen I really took stock of, \u2018What do I want to do? Where do I think I can make the biggest contributions to NASA overall?\u2019 It\u2019s definitely the flight director office,\u201d she says. \u201cWhile we\u2019re doing great things at the NBL, I think I can make a bigger difference in the flight director office. So that\u2019s what kind of pushed me over the edge.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

So she hastily updated her resume \u2013 she\u2019d waited to decide until only three days before the application deadline \u2013 and then went through what she called a nerve-racking interview process before heading on vacation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even on vacation, she couldn\u2019t settle her mind about the what ifs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She entertained the thought that she\u2019d get a call while scaling the side of a mountain in Canada \u2013 based off an IMAX movie she\u2019d seen at a museum in which a woman hanging off the side of the cliff got a call asking, \u201cDo you want to be an astronaut?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolinger didn\u2019t get the call then, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after returning from vacation, she was asked into her “boss’s boss’s boss\u2019s” office and told the news: She\u2019d been selected as one of six members in the latest class<\/a> who will lead mission control at Johnson Space Center in Houston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I finally got the show-up-to-the-big-boss\u2019s-office call, I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh my gosh, is this real? Is this actually happening?\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cI was pretty stoked when I finally got the handshake saying, \u2018Welcome to the office.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The journey<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For Bolinger, it\u2019s just another step in a considerable journey at NASA that she says started when she was just a kid.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/div>\n

In January 1986, Bolinger\u2019s family had gathered at her great-grandmother\u2019s home in Ohio, after the death of her great-grandfather. Bolinger, then not even 5, was plopped in front of the TV. The news showed replays of the main event of the day: The space shuttle Challenger\u2019s explosion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

\n
\"Bolinger\"
Allison Bolinger is eager to return to the console, after she finishes flight director training. (Photo courtesy of NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

After that, whenever anyone asked Bolinger what she wanted to be when she grew up, she said an astronaut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was \u201cobsessed\u201d with NASA. She attended space camps as a sixth-grader and as a senior in high school. By the latter visit, her natural abilities toward engineering had surfaced, as she\u2019d exceled in math and science. She\u2019d also realized by then a tendency to get carsick and a fear of heights probably meant she wouldn\u2019t be an astronaut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But NASA still was a goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it came to choosing a college, the Ohio native initially looked at schools in her home state. But she realized several operated on a quarter system, so that quickly eliminated them from the list because she knew NASA\u2019s Cooperative Education Program wouldn\u2019t line up with a quarter system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She knew Purdue had the largest presence in the astronaut corps, aside from the military at the time, so she checked out the campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just fell in love,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The School of Aeronautics and Astronautics offered the ideal opportunity for Bolinger, allowing her to focus on astrodynamics as a discipline but also get off campus to apply what she was learning in courses in a real-world environment through NASA’s co-op program. She did five co-op rotations while at Purdue and learned from each one, realizing which disciplines fit. The first three rotations \u2013 flight control, engineering and advance exploration \u2013 did not. But the last two? They were with the EVA training group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was the perfect mix,\u201d she says. \u201cYou not only had to understand how the entire space station was assembled and built, how every mechanism outside worked, how all the tools worked, so you had to use the engineering side of brain, but it was a lot of those soft skills, people interaction, because you were teaching the astronauts, too. So, to me, that was the perfect mix of engineering as well as hand\u2019s on and interacting with the astronauts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolinger realizes her education played a role in identifying that passion within NASA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe worst thing would be to put all this time and effort into getting a degree and finally you go out and put it to use and then realize you don\u2019t like what you\u2019re doing. So, for me, being able to participate in internships was a great way to really test the degree while you were still earning it,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was easy for me to go on internships while I was at Purdue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd my classes just really helped lay the foundation of being a good engineer and thinking through problems. The baseline of what you need here to work at NASA is how do you problem solve?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Allison
Allison Bolinger at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, the largest swimming pool in the world, where future astronauts train for spacewalks. (Photo by Trevor Mahlmann)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The next step<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s been a skill that has served Bolinger well at the agency, especially during her time on console during spacewalks when she was charged with making real-time decisions when something the crew tried may not have been working. And it\u2019s a skill that will need to be flexed in the new role as flight director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new flight director class will spend about a year training before moving into mission control, and that\u2019ll be a key learning period for Bolinger. She became a master of the spacesuit itself while working in EVA, and she knows how systems work in it. But in terms of the rest of the space station, she jokes she knows \u201cjust enough to be dangerous\u201d when it comes to communications or life support or power generation aspects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have to learn all that \u2013 or at least dust off those brain cells I haven\u2019t used for a while,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to that challenge of learning. I really, really enjoyed learning things at the NBL over the past year, so I\u2019m looking forward to that again, just learning how the nuts and bolts of the space station actually work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Bolinger\"<\/figure>

Allison Bolinger (Photo courtesy of NASA)<\/p><\/div>\n

But, when the time comes, she knows she\u2019ll be ready to step into a position that is considered elite by NASA. There are currently only 26 flight directors in mission control in Houston \u2013 not counting Bolinger\u2019s class \u2013 and there have been fewer than 100 to earn the distinction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

She knows she\u2019ll be prepared to be in charge of looking out for crew safety, vehicle safety and completing objectives. She knows she\u2019ll be pivotal in mission-planning stages, certainly, but especially when she\u2019s in mission control. As flight director, she\u2019ll have the final say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the responsibilities aren\u2019t limited to missions involving the International Space Station. Bolinger also will work with commercial spacecraft partners, Boeing and SpaceX, that are getting to launch crewed vehicles to make sure their requirements are sound. She\u2019ll also be involved in evaluating space exploration projects, whether it\u2019s the Space Launch System (SLS) or the Orion crew module.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The demands will be considerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Bolinger is ready, and she\u2019ll be sure to bring a twist to mission control: Humor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the other flight directors was saying, \u2018Now you have to learn what happens on the inside<\/em> of the space station.\u2019 Because at the NBL, we focus on the outside,\u201d she says. \u201cI said, \u2018Wait, the inside? It\u2019s full of water. My experience at the big pool, the inside of the space station is full of water. I don\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI find that humor is a really good way, especially when you\u2019re first forming a team, to allow people to break down barriers and feel more comfortable. I want it to be a really open environment. There are no dumb ideas. There are no dumb questions. Especially if you think we\u2019re doing the wrong thing. Please, speak up. I find that injecting humor, of course when appropriate, but using humor to help forge those relationships is a really good way to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Allison
Allison Bolinger (Photo courtesy of NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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