Saturday, June 6, 2020 – Monthly Meeting – 2 PM – ONLINE – Featured Speaker: Charles Phillips – Tracking Satellites

Join us for our Monthly NSS North Houston Space Society (http://NorthHoustonSpace.org) meeting. Come join others who are excited about exploring the cosmos, learning how to use the resources of space to improve human life, and who want to go and spread humanity to the rest of the universe.

The meeting will be on Saturday, June 6, 2020 at 2PM ONLINE Via ZOOM:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85216600533

Agenda:
2:00 PM – Opening Remarks – Nathan Price
2:10 PM – Recent Space News – Greg Stanley
2:30 PM – Tracking Satellites – Charles Phillips
3:15 PM – Q&A
3:30 PM – Where were you for the Historic SpaceX DM-2 Launch… Come prepared to share your experience. Some of our members went to Florida to see it.
4:00 PM – End of Meeting

Featured Speaker: Charles Phillips
CEO of Spaceflight Research

Tracking Satellites:
The discussion will be a (non-technical) overview of how to track satellites from the Houston area. It is possible to track satellites with inexpensive equipment and easily available software. The discussion will include WHY a person would track satellites and also HOW it is done. The existing Satellite Catalog will be briefly discussed and why some satellites are not shown in that catalog. The discussion is designed to give an overview so an interested person could decide if they want to get more involved and can determine what they might need to generate observations. 

About the Speaker:
Charles Phillips started tracking satellites in 1978 when he was in the US Air Force, he was an orbital analyst. He came to Houston in January 1985 as an Air Force flight controller at the Johnson Space Center, his first flight as a qualified flight controller was STS-51L. In 1990 he started as a civilian flight controller for Spacelab Life Sciences flights and worked STS-40 and STS-58. He also supported the NASA/Mir program and the ISS.

Can you spot the satellite in this photo?

Meetings open to all age groups and interest levels. Come explore with us the potential that developing and exploring space has to better life here on earth and to open up new frontiers creating new perspectives that can help enrich the human experience.

The Vision of NSS is people living and working in thriving communities beyond the Earth, and the use of the vast resources of space for the dramatic betterment of humanity.

The Mission of NSS is to promote social, economic, technological, and political change in order to expand civilization beyond Earth, to settle space and to use the resulting resources to build a hopeful and prosperous future for humanity. Accordingly, we support steps toward this goal, including human spaceflight, commercial space development, space exploration, space applications, space resource utilization, robotic precursors, defense against asteroids, relevant science, and space settlement oriented education.

Website:  http://NorthHoustonSpace.org
MeetUp: https://www.meetup.com/Future-North-Houston-National-Space-Society-Chapter/
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/NssNorthHoustonSpaceSociety/

NSS North Houston Space Society Member, Adam Hawkins, Joins the Blue Origin Team up to get us into space!

Adam Hawkins has been a long time member of the NSS North Houston Space Society.  And I have wonderful news to share.  He has just landed a job at Blue Origin.  Join me in congratulating Adam as his career in the space industry clears the launch pad.   

Email: achawkins@gmx.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamhawkins2012/

Checkout Adam’s Space Communicator speeches: https://www.northhoustonspace.org/2020-space-communicator-program/participants/adam-hawkins/

Here are some insights that Adam shared regarding his transition from Oil and Gas into the Aerospace sector:

I was seeking to retire from Oil and Gas industry and transition into space industry sometime between 2021-2025. Things happened to get fast tracked with me getting laid off from my Oil and Gas job on March 20th. I then began applying to jobs at four companies (NASA, Blue Origin, Space X, and Lockheed Martin). I would go on their website and apply from all things I remotely would qualify for from internships to entry level to higher up roles. The types of jobs I was applying for included Project Engineering, Project Management, Structural Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering (internship level only).

So I went to Blue Origin’s career page and looked at their roles in Florida, Alabama, and West Texas. There were only a handful of roles I qualified for so I applied to a couple of technical roles, a project management role, and an internship. I applied at 11pm at night and when I woke up at 8:30am I had received an email saying they would like to have a phone interview and everything went on from there.

The theoretical knowledge in managing projects is pretty translucent between industries, so they were really excited to having someone with a diverse background as mine in both construction management and project management. I have worked on some pretty prestige and record breaking projects in Oil and Gas industry which also aided in humblebragging my achievements through the interview process.

The interview consisted of a three step process which totaled 6 interviews, a writing assignment, and a 60 minute long presentation (the North Houston Space Communicator Award helped out tremendously in preparing and going through this).

My title will be Project Manage II and I will be helping Blue Origin get their Huntsville facility up and running. I am sure you are well aware Blue Origin is ready to start their mass production of rockets and so their Huntsville facility will be a rocket production and test facility. They currently only have about 50 ppl on board in the Huntsville location and the first few months to a year of the job will be mostly construction related getting things ready to start rocket production. Then once rocket production is ready to commence, the role will be more of a manufacturing management role implementing six sigma, kaizen, and lean methodologies to improve efficiencies and speed up rocket production. The exciting thing is I’ll be able to walk around the floor and see the rocket production and testing aspects so I should be able to see some cool things and as the company grows, I am sure there will be more diverse aspects to the role.

My advice to others would be to follow your passions and dreams and even if you do not think you will get the role or be able to chase your dreams, the ultimate defeat is not trying and who knows what might happen when you put yourself out there. Ensure that when you are going through the process, people can see that passion flowing through your voice as you discuss your plans for your future role and really make it transparent that you would rather be doing nothing else.

People are more than welcome to add me/message me on LinkedIn or email me if they would like to discuss more or have any questions for me.

If you (or someone you know) is looking to move into aerospace, here are some job listings that you could check:
NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/careers/search-and-apply
Blue Origin: https://www.blueorigin.com/careers
Space X: https://www.spacex.com/careers
Lockheed Martin: https://www.lockheedmartinjobs.com/space
Intuitive Machines: https://www.intuitivemachines.com/careers
ULA: https://www.ulalaunch.com/careers
Boeing: https://jobs.boeing.com/

NASA Solar System Ambassador Dr. Guilette – YouTube Live

Join NASA Solar System Ambassador Dr. Guilette for a YouTube Live event Tues May 19th @6pm while he discusses NASA’s past, present, & future programs, Space Shuttle programs, current missions Hubble & Mars 2020, ending with some upcoming events like the SLS rocket, Orion capsule & the James Webb Space Telescope. Q/A will go on throughout. https://www.youtube.com/user/mjguillette/featured

I watched the last presentation that Mark did and he did an amazing job. The presentation was informative, inviting, and interesting. He included videos and pictures to supplement what he was talking about. I think it would be great for older kids, teens, and adults. In addition to the session listed above, he will also have one on Thursday, June 25th from 2-3pm Central. Here is his bio page – https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/ambassadors/1885/  and YouTube channel – www.youtube.com/mjguillette