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"Hubble Women Making History"

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My name is Colleen Townsley, I'm part of the

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Hubble Space Telescope project, I work as
the Hubble integration and test team manager.

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Behind me is what we call the VEST structure
which is the Vehicle Electrical Systems Test

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structure, and inside of each of the bays
which

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correspond to the bays that are actually on

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the Hubble telescope on orbit.

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We have flight-like units, we have engineering
test units, we have simulators, brass boards,

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different things that comprise everything
that we need to test on the ground before

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we would send something up to the spacecraft.

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Anything that's going to be going
to the spacecraft like new flight software

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releases, different procedure changes, usually
needs to be tested in this facility first

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before sending it on orbit.

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I started in October 1988, so almost 35 years.

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Beginning with work with Hubble, I've been
part of the actual integration of the Hubble

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on the ground, launch of Hubble, and then
the subsequent servicing missions with testing

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of the replacement hardware, and of course
subsequent maintenance of the hardware involved.

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When I was in high school, women weren't in
these type of professions.

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You were going to be a secretary or you were
going to be a nurse.

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You just didn't have that kind of push to
go into the sciences and things like there

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is now thank goodness.

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When I mentioned I'd started in 1988, everybody
treated me with the same respect, I still

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had to work hard to move to different positions,
and work long hours if there's an anomaly

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on weekends or holidays.

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You know it's a lot of hard work but it's
extremely rewarding.

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You know, and I'm always, always still proving
myself.

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If I can inspire another young woman to go
into the fields, any science field in fact,

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that would be wonderful.

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I mean Hubble still producing great science
and we have overcome a lot of obstacles.

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I mean it's a fascinating piece of satellite,
still going strong, and I expect we'll still

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be going strong for many years.

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