WEBVTT 00:01.220 --> 00:04.100 When I was younger I was always fascinated by astronomy. 00:04.100 --> 00:07.030 And I can remember just looking up in space 00:07.030 --> 00:11.100 and looking out at the stars out there wondering what was out there. 00:11.100 --> 00:14.090 I actually wanted to be an aerospace engineer even when I was a little girl. 00:14.090 --> 00:17.220 I really liked math, and I liked you know space, and astronauts. 00:17.200 --> 00:20.210 And I would write letters to the NASA centers, and get pictures and stuff. 00:20.210 --> 00:27.000 I had posters in my bedroom of Jupiter, and Neptune, and Saturn. I thought they were just amazing. 00:27.000 --> 00:29.180 As a little kid Jupiter was my planet. 00:29.180 --> 00:32.170 I would look out there and you couldn't touch it, 00:32.170 --> 00:36.040 you couldn't learn about it enough because you couldn't get there. 00:36.040 --> 00:39.160 And so I always had this yearning to want to reach out. 00:39.160 --> 00:43.180 When people would ask me "what do you want to do when you grow up?" 00:43.180 --> 00:45.220 I said I want to work on spaceships. 00:45.220 --> 00:49.000 I really wanted to work on rockets and build things that would go into space. 00:49.000 --> 00:54.000 It's just really exciting to have a chance to do something 00:54.000 --> 00:57.080 that I really wanted to do when I was a little kid. 00:57.080 --> 01:00.060 For whatever reason I got lucky and I'm the head of Juno. 01:00.060 --> 01:02.030 And I'm reaching out. 01:02.030 --> 01:09.100 And of course I could never have done it myself. It's only through everybody reaching together that we can reach at all. 01:13.000 --> 01:18.080 It started out on the back of an envelope, as many things do. 01:18.080 --> 01:24.170 It's amazing being able to see a vague notion that you have in your brain turn into 01:24.170 --> 01:29.170 a real piece of hardware that is going to fly all the way to Jupiter. 01:29.170 --> 01:33.080 So Juno is really an incredible international mission. 01:33.080 --> 01:37.000 It's a very large mission. It involves people from many many different countries. 01:37.000 --> 01:41.180 Scientists, engineers, administrative people, technicians, people who do purchasing. 01:41.180 --> 01:46.170 I mean, it's amazing how many people in different walks of life have to be involved in making a mission like this happen. 01:46.170 --> 01:50.130 It's a big public endeavor. Everybody's involved. 01:50.130 --> 01:55.000 We really have the A-team here. And it's amazing that when you get that kind of atmosphere, 01:55.000 --> 01:59.000 and that kind of collaboration, and synergy, how that can just make the whole thing, 01:59.000 --> 02:01.050 even the hardest problem that much more palatable. 02:01.050 --> 02:04.190 We check our egos at the door. We roll our sleeves up. 02:04.190 --> 02:08.000 And then we just dive in and work whatever needs to be worked. 02:08.000 --> 02:17.000 I think that it's a tremendous experience to be involved in something where we can learn about how planets formed. 02:17.000 --> 02:22.180 We ask why are we here, where do we come from. 02:22.180 --> 02:28.000 Jupiter is the place to go to understand our origins. How the solar system formed. 02:28.000 --> 02:31.040 How the earth got its water and organic molecules. 02:31.040 --> 02:34.170 And whether we are a typical planetary system in the cosmos. 02:34.170 --> 02:38.040 You get to open a door that's never been opened by a human before. 02:38.040 --> 02:42.050 You're sending something to someplace where few things have ever gone. 02:42.050 --> 02:46.110 When you work on a project like Juno, which is really exciting, and there's a lot riding on it, 02:46.110 --> 02:49.220 and a lot of people working on something that takes a long time to prepare, 02:49.220 --> 02:52.200 there's an opportunity to be really anxious, 02:52.200 --> 02:55.200 there's an opportunity to be really excited. 02:55.200 --> 02:58.050 You can worry about all kinds of things. 02:58:050 --> 02:59.200 In a way it's like having a child. 02:59.200 --> 03:06.130 You rear this child throughout the years, and then all of a sudden they take off on their own and they become independent. 03:06.130 --> 03:11.050 It feels a little like an unruly teenager that I'm ready to get out of the house. 03:11.050 --> 03:14.190 Some of those cameras really do feel like my babies 03:14.190 --> 03:19.140 that I've been working on for such a long time. It's gonna be really wonderful. 03:19.140 --> 03:21.190 We developed the design for the spacecraft. 03:21.190 --> 03:24.200 We put it together and we let it fly. 03:24.200 --> 03:27.190 There's nothing like listening to that launch vehicle take off. 03:27.190 --> 03:32.050 And watching something that you've built, and poured a lot of time and energy into, leave the planet. 03:32.050 --> 03:35.070 You know that the whole team has done everything they can 03:35.070 --> 03:37.210 to ensure mission success. 03:37.210 --> 03:45.070 But there are no guarantees. So, I think pretty much everybody holds their breath and just waits. 03:47.070 --> 03:48.020 I think it's starting to hit all of us. 03:48.020 --> 03:50.100 How close we are, and this is really gonna happen. 03:50.100 --> 03:56.040 I'm excited to see this thing go and shake people's hands and walk away proud of working this mission. 03:56.040 --> 04:00:060 I don't know what else in life that you could do that would be so exciting 04:00:060 --> 04:04.180 and so different all the time. And again, have such job satisfaction. 04:04.180 --> 04:10:130 It's very rare to see a team that knows how to work together the way that this team does. 04:10:130 --> 04:15:060 It's quite a privilege and honor to be able to perform in this role. 04:15.060 --> 04:18.190 This is certainly the best job I've ever had and I love it. 04:18.190 --> 04:24.140 It's such a fun job and it's really a wonderful way to make the world seem even bigger than it is. 04:24.140 --> 04:28.050 (Cheering)