WINTER 2022: 61
men, somebody changed the signs on the
bathrooms. The secretary put a bunch of
flowers in the urinal.”
FRONT ROW SEATS
By 1983 she and her colleagues moved to the
blockhouse, a windowless, brick building on
the runway of the Shuttle Landing Facility.
As the space shuttle became operational,
with multiple flights a year, Hopkins and her
colleagues began a routine.
“Every launch we all would leave our desks
and offices and we’d go out to watch.”
On a cold January morning in 1986, standing
outside with her co-workers, she watched as
the space shuttle Challenger briefly gained
the sky and then exploded. Remembering
the moment, even 35 years later, she pauses
and with a catch in her voice, describes the
atmosphere with one word — gloom. Her tears
are contained but the memory stokes a hard
reality of how those working on the project
took the defeat personally.
Two and a half years later, in September 1988,
space shuttle Discovery returned to space.
One of Hopkins’ scrapbooks contains a letter
written on the eve of the launch by Doug
Sargen, Lockheed president, to all members of
the Shuttle Processing Contractor Team.
“The outstanding accomplishments of these
past few months are a tribute to the hard
work, professionalism and dedication of every
team member. ... You can all take pride in the
undeniable fact that you have indeed been
‘keeping America first in space.’ ”
STRONG SUPPORT SYSTEM
By 1992 she was team leader for the MSBLS
calibration team, a group of five specialists
establishing an on-going safe landing system
for the space shuttle.
“I always had someone I could go to for
help,” she says. “The support system was
strong, we always helped each other. It
was a great work environment. The only
disruptive people we had on our team my
boss eliminated or dropped.”
Proximity to the runway offered another
interesting perk. When the shuttle landed in
NASA
Space shuttles were ferried to the Kennedy Space Center on the back of a 747. Hopkins remembers
that sometimes the 747 would make a circular pass over Brevard County before landing.
California or Texas, it returned to KSC
on top of a 747. Hopkins remembers
that sometimes the 747 would make
a circular pass over Brevard County
before landing, just to show that the
shuttle was coming home.
“We had this mate-demate device out
by the airport,” Hopkins says. “And
it would lift the shuttle off the big
airplane, move the airplane out and
set the shuttle down.”
The dismount process would
uncouple the shuttle from the top
of the 747, which was then towed
or pushed away. The shuttle was
suspended in air attached to braces,
like a colossal arcade toy grabber
machine secured to a set of massive
cranes. The landing gear was
gracefully deployed and the reusable
craft was gently placed on the tarmac.
“All I had to do was walk outside to
watch the operation,” Hopkins says.
At 90, Hopkins, who lives in Vero
Beach, looks back and confesses to
have loved all 30 years of her career.
The contributions she made to a
critical state-of-the-art endeavor in a
time of great exploration helped the
program mature and the personnel
stay safe. Assessing the risks was her
continual focus. And her success is
a testament not only to her intellect
but also the dedication to her job.
Today, NASA’s KSC has its first
woman director, Janet Petro. And
women like Jean Hopkins, over her
long career, plowed the ground and
made the runway safe for a landing
like that.