[Dialogue] NASA software developer moves on ...

[John Cock]

Tim, congratulations on a career in profound living. 

And we will continue to thank you for keeping us colleagues "wired" together
globally.

Journey on,

John

-----Original Message-----
From: dialogue-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net
[mailto:dialogue-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Tim Wegner
Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2012 12:21 PM
To: dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net
Subject: [Dialogue] NASA software developer moves on ...

Yesterday I turned in my badges at the United Space Alliance.

My NASA career started when Susan and I were re-assigned from Egypt to
Houston. The only thing I knew about the Space Shuttle was what I had read
in Time magazines bought on the streets in Cairo. 

When we arrived at the Houston House, Susan stayed "in house" and I was
assigned to work.  Larry Henschen helped me arrange an interview with
McDonnell Douglas, a NASA contractor.  I had never programmed a computer and
had no qualification other than a Master's degree in mathematics and an
"all-but-thesis" not-quite-a-PhD. In retrospect, those were great
credentials, since the state of computer programming when I was in college
was using punch cards. When I was working programming NASA's first Unix
computers, I remember thinking "I wish I had studied Unix in college" - then
realizing that Unix didn't exist when I was in college! But the principles
and laws of mathematics and physics I learned in the late 60's have stood up
very well. My career has been spent in the abstract world of mathematical
models of gravity, drag, solar pressure, and accelerations - space, the
final frontier. Hard to beat that.

I missed the first four shuttle flights but arrived in time for STS-5. My
first project was an analysis of the shuttle drag model. My supervisors
weren't watching closely, so I learned FORTRAN on a UNISYS mainframe and
implemented my results in a program called HOPE. 
(There was another program called LOVE, but not one called FAITH.) Shortly
thereafter I was re-assigned as a programmer, and remained a software
developer (and software project manager) for my whole career, which extended
more then a year past the last Shuttle flight in July 2011. I ended up
working for various NASA contractors for a bit over 30 years.

Shortly after I started at NASA, Larry Henschen and I were instrumental in
helping Lynn Oden, another Houston House order member, in also getting a
job. For a few years Lynn and I commutred together. Lynn retired a few years
ago, having had a fine  career as a Shuttle Navigation Flight Controller.

Susan and I never "left" the Houston House; it melted away around us as the
Order transitioned away from corporate living. Conna Wilkinson was the last
one to leave when she moved back to Oklahoma. So Susan and I turned out the
lights of the Houston House and got an apartment, and later bought a house.
I am grateful today for all the experiences we had assigned to San
Franscisco, San Jose, Melbourne, Adelaide, Bayad, and finally Houston. Susan
and I arrived in Houston with no assets but no debts in our mid-thirties,
and are now both retired. We still have no debts, but now we have a few
assets. I amazed that that was possible!

I am still working with a small group of your colleagues keeping the
wedgeblade.net glue connecting our far flung community alive.

Retirement is, of course, just another "assignment" to new challenges.

Tim Wegner


 
_______________________________________________
Dialogue mailing list
Dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net
http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/dialogue-wedgeblade.net