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<click> My name is Debbie Fairbrother, I'm the

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Chief of the NASA Balloon Program Office and I am

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the management structure for the balloon program.

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(music)

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I don't know what I wanted to do when I grew

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up. When I went into college, I liked math and

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science, so I picked engineering. I didn't know what engineering

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job could do. My aunt was an engineer so I knew

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that a female could do engineering. But, I was more just getting

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tools for my tool box and doing something

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and I'd enjoyed. I enjoyed the math and I enjoyed the science. I didn't really

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understand balloons until I was in grad school and some of my

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fellow students were working on balloon film research. But, I didn't

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quite understand balloons until I actually got the job.

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It was at international and realize how unique

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and enormous and just cool balloons could be.

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(music)

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My first day at NASA, I was

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kind of in shock that I had actually taken the leap

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to leave Texas, to leave my family and friends

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and venture out on the eastern shore of Virginia

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for a job following balloons. So it was

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nervous, but I knew some of the people I worked

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with because I had done research for them and so that made me feel

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a little bit more comfortable and ultimately has become home.

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(music)

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In my life my family has been a huge influence. Growing up both

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sets of grandparents owned small businesses. One owned a small country

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store and the other a tavern and I remember

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one pair of my grandparents in their will it said

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that first thing that their money would go to if they

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died would put my brother and I through college.

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So before any money would go to my dad or his sisters

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they wanted to make sure we had an education.

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Understanding that education was so important to them

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really instilled in us how important it was to do well in school

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and to get our degrees.

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The great barrier I had to overcome was, going out of my

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comfort zone. Sometimes change is not

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easy, so the decision to leave Texas and take a job

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at Wallops was kind of taken me out of my

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comfort zone. My decision to apply for the chief

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position took me out of my comfort zone and

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sometimes you need to push yourself and

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its amazing what you could do.

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(music) My greatest accomplishment is being part of the super pressure balloon

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team. So, the super pressure balloon is kind of the next generation

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balloon development and any research and development we've had

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our highs and our lows. So, getting through

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the lows and understanding what happen when you had a failure or anomaly

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and being able to fix it and move on, has been

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very rewarding. It's frustrating but rewarding.

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We went to Antarctica back in 2009 with a balloon

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and we launched it and went up to float and

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it failed. So, here you're half way around the world

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it's right around Christmas time and

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you got to regroup and investigate and try to find out why

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did this balloon fail, so you can move the project forward.

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(music)

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The advice that I would pass on to the next generation is

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to find something you like to do. If you work hard

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and enjoy what you do. It makes things so much easier.

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I typically like going to work.

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I mean there are some days when you got meetings or reviews that you dread going to.

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But I enjoy what I do. I light up when I get to talk about

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balloons. I enjoy going

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the travel and doing that. So, if they are doing something that they are not

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enjoying, find something else. Because you've got to have it

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in your heart, you want to do this. It will make

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life so much easier and so much happier.

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(music)

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(music)

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(music)

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