Arlington Hts. woman's job out of this world
Next month, Arlington Heights native Angela Cason will travel to Moscow, but it won't be to see the sights.
The 1995 Hersey graduate will be among a team of 25 engineers from NASA and the Canadian Space Agency meeting with Russian space officials who are designing a type of module to be launched in 2010.
Typically, Cason makes these trips to Moscow up to five times a year.
What started out back in junior high school with successive trips to space camp has resulted in her dream job: She now works as an engineer for NASA.
In fact, she serves as the lead Russian element integration engineer on the International Space Station program, making sure Russian modules conform to its standards.
"My role with these modules is to work with the NASA engineering teams to confirm that all issues are coordinated with the Russian teams working on these modules," Cason said.
She is overseeing the construction of the Docking Cargo Module, which she will review next month; as well as the Docking Compartment 2, which will be launched from Biakonur, Russia, in 2009, and the Multipurpose Laboratory Module which will be launched in 2011.
Cason credits her interest in the space program back to a trip she took with her parents to Disney World, when she was 6. While waiting to go to the park, the family watched the launch of the space shuttle Challenger on its maiden flight, and Cason was hooked.
Cason went on to attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, graduating with a major in human factors engineering, and minors in aerospace engineering and mathematics.
"The programs at Space Camp are designed as close to the actual experience of what it takes to put a shuttle mission together," Cason said.
But it was the chance to gather with other kids as excited about space as she was that made the lasting impact.
"I met kids from almost every state, and several different countries," she said, "all while talking about the space program."
Funny, as an adult, she finds herself doing the same thing.