UAF graduate engineer at NASA: sky is limit for Tess Casswell.

• Author: Colby, Nicole A. Bonham
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: ENGINEERING

The sky is apparently the limit for an Alaska woman who is among Mission Control Center operators at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. From a childhood spent growing up in a cabin outside Soldotna to now working the flight-control console for the nation's space program, University of Alaska-Fairbanks (UAF) alumnus Tess Caswell says her Alaska roots have served her well in an industry that requires innovation and ingenuity.

"When I was growing up, we lived in a cabin about eight miles outside of Soldotna," says Caswell, who holds a bachelor's degree from UAF in mechanical engineering, with emphasis on aerospace engineering and minor in math. "We made our own entertainment. We learned how to have fun. Playing around in the woods: that's probably where my wanting to explore came from. Alaska is similar to space in that regard. Living up there and living through those ridiculously cold winters ... living in that environment" gave her the tools necessary to create solutions--and a plan "to get things done," she says.

Caswell has wasted no time in working that plan. She says she was fascinated in elementary school by her teacher's wall-sized poster of a space shuttle orbiting Earth. That image made her want to become an astronaut, she says. When she later met astronaut Joe Allen, he suggested she consider pursuing her interest as an engineer.

While studying engineering at UAF, she discovered the Alaska Space Grant program and its Alaska Student Rocket Project. From that experience, her academic and professional career transited a sharp trajectory to the front lines of space-flight technology. Before ending up in Houston, Caswell participated in the Goddard Space Flight Center's NASA Academy, and the NASA Reduced Gravity Program. She now works in mission control for the International Space Station as a certified operator monitoring the Environmental and Thermal Operating Systems (ETHOS). "Operators are the first level of mission control flight controllers," she says. "After more training, I will become a specialist...